Listening to my yummy Nora Roberts novel on Audible this morning in my car on my way to work, I heard a a beautiful, and unexpected nugget of gold.  This book I’m listening to is about a modern witch, who has various powers, and when faced with a feeling of foreboding for the future, she basically said:  Everyone has the power to change the future by what they are doing today.  No special “witch power” needed.

A nugget of gold because we know that’s true, right?  We can change things in our lives for  the future by acting on them now. And, you don’t have to be “special” to do it!  But we procrastinate, don’t we?  We make excuses.  We blame others.  You’ve probably experienced this in some form or another; I know I have.  We all make excuses, to ourselves and to others, about why we didn’t do what we said we’d do, or why we aren’t doing what we want to do.  We blame alarm clocks that don’t go off, keys that can’t be found, traffic jams, the pandemic, politicians.  We blame parents, lack of education, our health, or just plain bad luck for our lack of success or for our unhappiness.  

“But, you don’t understand what I have to deal with!” or “I couldn’t help this happened to me!” – these phrases have definitely come out of my mouth a time or two.  When I really pay attention, I can catch myself speaking words of defeat into my life, instead of words of victory.

This whole topic even came up in my daily devotional from Wake Up To Hope by Joel Osteen, which I read each morning. And that’s not really surprising, right? When you start paying attention to something, just thinking about it creates an energy, which brings more of that thinking to you. Just as Joel says:

Our imagination is extremely powerful. The way we see ourselves in these pictures that we create, over time, will not only drop down into our spirit, but if we continue to dwell on them, they get into our subconscious mind. Once something is in the subconscious, it’s just like gravity; it pulls us toward it. All these internal forces are released, and more often than not, we become just like we’ve imagined.

So, here’s what I’ve learned in my life:  Successful, happy people accept responsibility for themselves.  They truly live the philosophy that they choose how they feel each day and how they respond to events happening around them.  What we think about, we bring about AND what we’ve thought about, we brought about.  Perhaps it’s even more understandable when we also assign the word “feeling” to thought.  Because, whatever we are feeling, we attract into our lives.  Our thoughts are just the form our feelings take.  

Bottom line: Our words are powerful!  Speak blessed words of victory and thankfulness, and you get more of that in return.  Speak words of defeat and lack, and you get more of that.  No “witch power” needed!