After being incapacitated for a period of time, we lose muscle tone. They say it happens rather quickly. Sadly, it is painless to lose it but very painful to build it. I am in training building muscle once again and gaining strength in my leg, not to mention my back. And of course the stabilizing factor to all of that, is the stomach muscles, our core. “Lord, this is too hard!” As I groan through these workouts, that I do not want to do, but am rather sternly encouraged to do by my dear husband, as well as my physical therapist, I hear Paul’s words “But I [discipline] my body and make it my slave . . . ” (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Which leads me to the monster of the mind! Yes, my mind has been undergoing training as well, and there is a reason I refer to it as a monster. Many things we struggle with can mushroom into giants as we find ourselves cooped up, and immobile for a period of time. Wait a second! We don’t have to be incapacitated for the monsters to loom large over our circumstances and our minds to run hog wild!

Even though muscle tone can be lost instantly when we go through some physical injury or illness, a mind that has been properly trained retains the wrinkles and will produce the antidote to get us through those difficult times. Where I allow my mind to dwell produces either faith or fear, contentment or dissatisfaction, peace or a living hell. Paul instructs us in Philippians 4:8 where our minds should be dwelling and then again in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, He informs us of the importance of a renewed mind. Thus, it is the greatest training to put yourself through for the reward of a sound mind! “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind,” 2 Timothy 1:7 [NKJV]. A sound mind is a disciplined mind and that brings me back to 1 Corinthians 9:27, “But I discipline my body and make it my slave . . .”

Sometimes what feels like thorns and cause the most pain, will inevitably become dazzling blooms!

“I praise you that ‘Jesus Christ is able to untangle all the snarls in my soul, to banish all my complexes, and to transform even my fixed habit patterns, no matter how deeply they are etched in my subconscious’”(Corrie ten Boom). —31 Days of Praise, by Ruth Myers