Don’t give others power over your thinking

October 7, 2013 | 21 comments

Do you ever give others negative power over your thinking?

For instance, “My co-worker makes me mad every time she messes up.”  Oops. Have you ever stopped and realized that you are giving power to that worker to make you mad when they mess up?

Or, “I’m afraid of what my boss is going to think.”

It’s healthy to value what your boss has to say, but there’s no spiritual law that dictates you have to fear his opinion and let dread of it make you miserable in the meantime. He is not in control of your thinking. You are. And you can choose to stay spiritually minded and enlightened!

Mary Baker Eddy wisely wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,

“You will learn that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself” (p. 496).

This is a joyful duty to fulfill!

And on the same page,

“You will also learn that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind, and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by man and governs the entire universe.”

There is one Mind in this universe that fills the receptive consciousness with truth and love. As we honor the one Mind, realize its presence and reflect its spiritual mindedness, we resist negative control. Other people’s beliefs and opinions will not take over our thinking and put us into a downward mental spiral. Spiritual mindedness resists this error and protects us from it.

So, you’re never helpless with God. You don’t have to get mad. You don’t have to get depressed. You don’t have to feel weak. Other people should never be a god unto you. In truth, they are reflections of the one Mind that can only share goodness with you. Accept the goodness, and reject anything less. Only give power to God to influence your thinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 thoughts on “Don’t give others power over your thinking”

  1. When it comes to people and circumstances…I always say, “Take the BEST, and LEAVE the rest”!
    Thank you for the reminder, Evan.

  2. WOW! This blog is so important. It wakes us up to the truth that we don’t have to give credence to others thoughts of us, good, bad or indifferent. We just have to love our selves and others in God’s image and likeness and leave it at that.

  3. I really see applications here for our current government shut-down. Just because the government officials and the media are saying the government is not functioning does not have to have power over our thinking. To accept what they say is allowing ourselves to be mesmerized. We can counter this claim by knowing that the only true government is God’s government, and he never stops governing. Therefore, there can be no government shut-down.

    As Evan concludes, “Accept the goodness, and reject anything less. Only give power to God to influence your thinking.” God rules.

    1. Great ideas Kathleen! Thanks for sharing. Yep, we have to see higher than human government, to the divine government that never gets shutdown.

  4. Evan…wonderful lift today…but with the bright colors behind the printing…the rpint doesn’t show up when you try to print it.

    Pls do note how these print out …they’re so nice to carry around …and busy backgrounds don’t allow it…

    Many thanks, Barbara

    1. Thank you!

      I’m not sure what you’re doing that made it hard to read. I copy and pasted the print of the post into a Word document and it came out beautifully, the picture above the print and the print easy to read. Hmmm…

    2. HI EVan…Tried it several times again….your whole scene is the background for the print…almost unreadable. Have someone close to you pull up on their computer and print it out. You’ll see what I mean. Otherwise, I’ll send it to you….Thanks, Barbara

  5. The print problem is when you print from the browser window. I use Firefox and when I did a print preview to see what happened, I see what Barbara did. The copy and paste into Word would be better. Then you are getting the text and not the background image.

    Thank you Evan and Kathleen for your true government with no shutdown. God is always on the job of being God.

  6. Thankyou Evan, this has just come to my rescue. I have been caught up in a mixup of many minds and it has just been dissolved. Thankyou so much.

  7. Just loved it !
    Only give power to God to influence your thinking.
    I´m placing this on my refrigerator so I remember it every day !
    Thank you, Evan 🙂

  8. Sometimes it’s not an ‘other’ person to whom I give the power…instead, it’s my own limited perception that takes me on a downward spiral. So I substituted my thinking for the person in the above paragraph, “…there’s no spiritual law that says (I) have to fear (my own) opinion and let dread of it make me miserable…” “…that (limited perception) is not in control of my thinking. I am…and I can choose to stay spiritually minded and enlightened.” It’s always so helpful to read your positivity-full ideas. Thanks so much for sharing. This met a very specific need tonight!

  9. I use a Mac and Safari. When I click print I get a drop down box in which is a choice to print backgrounds or not. I don’t know if anyone else gets those choices in their system or not.

  10. I can’t seem to get my head around this. If someone does something wrong why is some type of retribution not necessary? But is justifiable. When it’s over there is great regret, remorse with vague promise that it will never happen again. But, the cycle starts all over again and again. A lot of apologies. There is shame of course. I pray a great deal asking for Gods forgiveness. And this weeks lesson is so clear with that wonderful thy siins are forgiven. I guess you know this is about abuse. You don’t need to respond. Just writing about it helps. Thank you.

    1. Hi Pat,

      A very sensitive topic, you have brought up. With abuse, to believe one has to stay in an abusive situation would be giving power to the abuser. I know these can be very tough situations to deal with and see through, but a good place to start in prayer is to look for a way out. There has to be a way out because it’s not right to be abused. But to be loved! Returning an “eye for an eye,” usually makes things worse. But to “Be wiser than serpents,” finds a way to either reform the situation or get into a position of dominion where you are not abused any longer. Don’t let the abusive mentality rule your mental home and cause you to feel weak and helpless. You are not. Or whoever you are thinking about.

      1. Hi Evan,

        After reading your “One Leg Was Shorter Than The Other” blog post:

        http://spiritview.net/2014/05/one-leg-shorter.html

        I realized how important it is to clear your thinking of memories of past hurts/failures/illnesses/etc/etc/. This was a real eye opener to me! Thank you! I’ve since managed to free myself from many unhealthy memories by praying to realize how much God loves me and by knowing I’ve *always* been held in God’s love irregardless of whatever human situation I seemed to experience. It’s almost like when I was a kid watching a scarey movie and I had to tell myself “it’s just a movie…it’s not real” to calm myself down at times.

        I don’t mean to trivialize any negative experiences anyone may be struggling with by posting this comment. I just wanted to share how freeing it has been to me to go through my past negative experiences and neutralize the hurt by immersing myself in God’s (Love’s) love.

  11. Hi all,
    This post was listed today, and I’m grateful to re-read it. It’s an issue that seems to come up repeatedly.

    I have someone in my life who has been holding a negative image of me for some time, even as I spent most of my energy supporting Mom in her last year. I was her main emotional support, speaking with her almost daily and spending a lot of time with her, as well as having to work constantly to refute the aggressive picture of decline that presented itself. I neglected other things in my life due to prioritizing Mom.

    He seemed to think my failure to make progress on my own tasks was a sign of some deep problem. As he wasn’t here often, he didn’t see what was really happening. I resisted resenting his absence, but his negative attitude towards me – when he wasn’t here to help, much less see what was really going on – was more that I could handle.

    It’s been difficult to drop the resentment. Can’t say I’m 100% there yet, but I am very firm in my knowledge that his claim has nothing to do with reality. The neglected things in my life willl sort themselves in time. What’s important is, I am so grateful I was there for Mom! Nothing can take that away. Now I just have to keep working to still self-righteousness, and see HIM in the right light as well. I know resentment only punishes me.

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