December is a good time to take a mental holiday.

For many, that is impossible. There are houses to decorate, family dinners to plan, gifts to buy, children’s school vacations to prepare for, church events, yearly letters to write, travel plans to make, and Christmas cards to send. For some, that is all the ingredients with no recipe. For others, it is a well thought out, step-by-step recipe to make a glorious final product, called Christmas. Whichever method you use, it is all chaotic.

This December, I did a mental refocus and tried to take more moments to let my mind rest. To meditate more, ponder more, pray more.

Trust me, there were still many moments of insanity! The chaotic days as a single mom with a special needs child – endless doctor appointments, health issues, fighting for rights with schools and medical care, endless paperwork and phone calls… “Please hold for the next available agent, you are now 20th in line. Your approximate wait time is twelve hours.” Okay, a little melodramatic.

I was also still sending resumes and introduction letters, not-so-patiently praying, waiting for someone to acknowledge the education, experience, and skills of this senior, single parent. Praise God, after three years – a final, perfect match!

There were also my health issues. Twenty-five years of chronic pain, I had managed. This new, sleepless nights, can’t walk-stand-sit, intense pain for the last year, has been a new adventure. The endless blood tests, exams, x-rays. Then changes in doctors because of insurance regulations, incompetent professionals, and several cancellations and reschedules because of life, has been tedious.

Amid all these things, I wanted to refocus my mind. Not to take away from the transcendent celebration of the birth of our Savior with its eternal glorification, but to stop the mind’s battle… my mind’s battle.

Countless pastors have spoken about the battle of the mind and its consequences. Pastor Rick Warren wrote in his chapter The Battle for Your Mind, “It is the battle for your mind, and that battle is vicious. It is intense. It is unrelenting, and it is unfair because Satan never plays fair. And the reason why it is so intense is that your greatest asset is your mind.”

How many times do you let your thoughts take control of your feelings?

Comparison

Worry

Doubt

Confusion

Hate

Fear

Guilt

Discontent

Resentment

Arrogance

Bitterness

Worthlessness

Regret

What about times that you think someone is misjudging you? Criticizing you? We can spend hours, even days, caught up in the four walls of the battle of our minds.

I don’t want to live there anymore!!

There was a sermon by Pastor Louie Giglio and at the end, he felt led by God to speak words of truth to those suffering mentally by cruelty said about them or done to them. His words of wisdom? Let it go!

Simply… let it go.

Painless, yet painful.

For years, I dwelled on the malicious words that my mother spoke to me all of my life. I forgave her because one, clinical depression was genetic on the maternal side, and two, she was retaliating from her own inner pain. I did not want that legacy to continue. Have I altogether forgotten those words? No, but I measure them to their value, which is none. Our true values are not about what someone says about us or thinks of us. Our true value comes from what God thinks about us and says about us.

You cannot change the past. You cannot give back the hurtful words said about you or the harmful things done to you. Sometimes you don’t have the strength to do that – I get it! That is when you give it to God and ask Him to remove those painful memories from you or for Him to show you how to make purpose out of the piercing.

But you can manage your mentality! If you know Christ, focus on Him and how He values you.

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast (unwavering), because they trust in Him (God)” (Isaiah 26:3).

” Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).

“Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me” (Isaiah 49:16b-17).

“For you formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).

Tomorrow is a new day, a new year! Impress on your mind, “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

When the waves of ridicule, rejection, regret, and remorse come crashing into your mind, let it go – for your peace of mind, and ultimately for God’s glory.