Little League Fundamentals

I used to coach boys and girls little league baseball and softball. To take those little tykes and teach them the fundamentals of the game and to make it fun was enjoyable for me.  Their shortened attention spans, but eagerness to please was always evident.

One of the key fundamentals I always stressed was catching the ball. If we were going to have any success and a good time on the ball field, then we as a team needed to be able to do this.

There were days though when my teams looked like the “Bad News Bears” out there with uncoordinated limbs flailing in every direction and couldn’t catch the ball, even if my life or theirs depended on it. After those times all we could do was wait for another day of practice to better hone our techniques and muscle memory with added repetitions.

I took to coaching the tykes with a disciplined approach. Instructing them with care and repetition over and over. So that during the stresses of the game they would be able to do their best and react (hopefully with satisfactory results) without having to think about what they needed to do.

Catching Our Thoughts, A Key Fundamental

As in baseball and softball, being able to catch your thoughts is a key fundamental. Especially if you want to have success, a good time, and to enjoy this life.

It is my firm belief that the Lord loves you and wants you to have success in this life. He desires for you and I to have peace and joy.

The only way to do this is by catching your thoughts, especially the rogue ones, that turn negative, worrisome, anxious, nasty, and ill-willed. If you don’t there may be unsavory consequences along the way.

I know that I’ve had times when my thoughts went rogue tearing through synapses of my brain like a two-ton elephant rampaging through the brush leaving swaths of visible damage along the way. Trying to reign those thoughts in and to capture them seemed pert near impossible at times.

Freeing Yourself from Burdens

The primary way to catch your thoughts is to focus on what God’s word says. It’s important to become mindful, and to capture rogue thoughts and to make them obedient to Christ.

1^st Cor. 10:5

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (NIV).

How you do this is by meditating and practicing Prov. 4:20-22

Give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”

By disciplining yourself in your thought life, you are directing your attention to stop the negative-hurtful way of thinking.

Science Shows the Benefits of Catching Your Thoughts

The exciting study that Dr. Leaf has shared is that when you make a conscious decision to think the right thoughts in line with God’s word you change physical matter – your brain and body changes in a healthy way. It is through these thoughts that positive neural networks are wired up so that you can catch negative thoughts.

Purposely catching your thoughts can control the brains sensory processing, the brain’s wiring, the neurotransmitters, the genetic expression, and cellular activity which can lead to positive consequences. Not catching those thoughts and stopping them leads to negative, toxic thoughts being wired into the brain which can lead to negative consequences.

Discipline your thoughts by taking the time to repetitiously meditate and think on what God’s word has to say. When the stresses of life come your way, and they will, you will hopefully react in faith. Being successful and enjoying life in every area, catching any and all negative thoughts that may arise.

I leave you with a thought to chew on: We Are the Perfection of God in Christ.

Because we are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26) and have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), our normal state is perfection. Dr. Leaf

Switch On Your Brain: The Key To Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2013), pgs 71-77