Jun 27, 2013

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

We all grow.

If we didn't, we'd be stagnant, and that's not a good thing.

Just think of a stagnant pool of water. What does it attract? life, but what kind? Scum, and then the creatures that are attracted to that, right?

I don't know about you, but 'd rather have a vibrant life that flourishes, no matter what may come. I'd like to be more like a caterpillar because they can transfom into a butterfly.


images from WeHeartIt.com


Does a caterpillar know its' end from its' beginning? Like us, likely not.

But a caterpillar, like us, must TRANSFORM in order to become something above it's initial existence. In terms of people, this transformation can occur most truly, authentically, and fully to those who EMBRACE a life of believing in and following Jesus Christ.



In Christ, every day truly IS a new day. As we embrace Him, we also embrace kindness, hope, grace, love, and compassion and add them to our way of life. Neuroplastic researcher and author, Dr. Caroline Leaf,  talks about the way our thoughts are attached to emotions, and then to attitudes, and from there, the very DNA within us changes and so does our behavior. For each thought, a pattern is created by what we CHOOSE to do with it, and that goes toward wither health or illness, depending on what we ACCEPT and ALLOW to remain within our persons. It has been proven that all emotions stem from either LOVE or FEAR, and that those things we choose to keep within us either create health, or build up a toxic waste dump inside of us... in our minds, hearts, bodies, spirits, and more.


Just LOOK at that dump!!

When we allow toxins to build within us, or allow toxic people a place in our lives, this is basically what it looks like inside our heads, and then our bodies, hearts, and spirits. YUCK!!! I don't know about you, but I don't want ANY of that inside of me, taking up room, causing foul smells and attitudes.

According to Dr. Leaf and many other researchers like her, it has been shown that people are NOT either left or right-brained, as once taught. The left and right sides work in conjunction with one another: one thinks in detail toward the big picture, and the other side from big picture to the details.



The picture above is basically what we were taught, but this isn't quite the case!! There is analysis on both sides, and the whole is also creative. They just come to conclusions in different ways, and when we make a decision, it is based in part on that culmination.

It is also based on what memories and experiences we have retained within us.

As many of you know, it has been shown that not only does the brain store memory, but so does the body. This is further evidence of what Dr. Leaf writes in both of her texts on the way we think. GOD gave us brains that compute over 800,000 things a second while we can only comprehend 2,0000 of them at a time. he also created us all in such a way that every single brain is unique, and therefore each person is unique if for no other reason that that.

What does this have to do with butterflies and caterpillars, though, Harmony?

Well, the Word tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We read in Romans 12:1-2, Amplified, the following:

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

Science concurs with God's Word, written thousands of years ago, that the mind CAN and DOES renew itself, and that we have a choice about it. We always have had!

The true follower of Christ truly HAS gone into the cocoon of the Holy Spirit and come out, not a caterpillar any longer (the old man), but a wondrous butterfly (the new man)!




In the words of Richard Bach, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

 

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