Learn 2 Discern in October—Part II

Mindsets. Ways of thinking. Attitudes. Thoughts. Beliefs. Our mindsets tell us a lot about how we were raised and how we think. #Learn2DiscernOctober @donnalhsmith @a3writers TWEETABLE

Where were you raised? I grew up in the Midwest, in Kansas. My state was a “free” state during the Civil War and was admitted to the Union during the Civil War to counteract Missouri, especially, being aligned with the South.

Today, Kansas is pretty “conservative.” Conservative is a mindset that means a lot of different things. Some of the synonyms to conservative are: traditional, conventional, unadventurous, old-fashioned, and conformist.

To be conservative politically speaking, is to believe that the individual has the answer, not the government.

To be conservative religiously speaking, is to belief in “traditional” views that hold closely to a prescribed way of interpreting the Bible.

To be conservative financially, means to conserve your resources. I think this is where conservative comes from. To preserve means to save or keep.

We need to keep and save our values, our beliefs, and those we hold dear, while discarding those which are negative.

Most mindsets are taught. Some are “mob” mindsets, which is where lynching and rioting comes from. Someone says something (wherever they get the idea from), and it’s picked up by others.

We see mob mentality in the Bible, in Matthew 27:22-23, Mark 15:13-14, and Luke 23:20 & 23. “Crucify him!” The mob shouted for Jesus’ death. Some movies I’ve seen fantasize about how that may have happened. One person starts it. Then the mob picks it up. I’ve seen a couple movies where followers of Christ try to out-shout (unsuccessfully, of course) the mob.

There’s the movie “The Ox Bow Incident,” where a mob lynches and hangs a man. Then, they have to try to live with themselves.

Today, we don’t usually see lynch mobs, but instead, we have riots—when court decisions or occurrences go a different way than some people think they should. We also see a mob bullying going in certain quarters where intimidation is used to try to change peoples’ minds.

Daniel 10 talks about a vision the prophet Daniel had of a man dressed in linen clothing with a belt of pure gold. The man said, in verse 12, “…don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray…your request has been heard in heaven…for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way…” NLT

Through all the filters, all the “noise,” there are basically three sources of information from which we build our mindsets. We’ll look at each one beginning next week. #Learn2DiscernOctober @donnalhsmith @a3writers TWEETABLE

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