My friend Lisa is an actor, speaker, and author of several books including the massively popular Creative Correction. She's learned to remember God first in her thoughts and make Him the center of her thought closet. She's one actor who no longer rehearses her conversations or accomplishments.
"I've had imaginary dialogues in my head, between me and people whose approval I seek---the Lord has really asked me to stop having those conversations. If I want to talk about them, He asks me to turn them into prayer, a conversation with Him. I feel I can do that with Him. I can rest in the safety of how He feels about me enough to not be perfect. I think with other people and even with myself, I want to be perfect, and I will make sure I have rehearsed or thought through everything I said or want to say so that I can give that appearance. But with the Lord, I don't feel that need. I don't have to have it all together. It really has been awareness of those inner-conversations that has helped me take my thoughts to the Lord as prayers."
English author Aldous Huxley compared our memories to private collections of literature. Your thought closet is like a library full of the stories of your life. When you pull a book from the shelf, it might produce a smile or nostalgic longings for yesterdays. You might even wish you could remove it.
Our memories hold countless pages of stories, thoughts, and pictures. So what does this have to do with what you say to yourself? Thank you for asking! I will gladly tell you.
Pour yourself a cup of coffee and turn to Psalm 103. What did the psalmist say to his soul in verse 2?
Psalm 103:2 (New International Version, ©2010)
2 Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
Not to forget all the benefits of the LORD
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