How Mary Poppins Helped My Spiritual Life

I learned an important spiritual lesson from one of the great philosophers of our age when I was a child.

Eliminate the negative.  Accentuate the positive.

That’s right.  Mary Poppins taught me a spiritual lesson years ago, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I have always adhered to it.  It’s a tough lesson to put into practice.  However, it is one that I want to focus on more over the coming year of my life.  It’s one that I know that I need and I feel certain that I am not the only one.

In the course of conversation with people I hear them say that they aren’t growing spiritually.  Maybe they don’t have a prayer life.  Perhaps they don’t read the Bible or even have good Biblical knowledge.  I understand that.  I really do.  I have struggled and do struggle with those things myself.

Eliminate The Negative

What things prevent us from praying?  What keeps us from reading our Bible?  What stops you from having fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ?  We can blame regular old life, but what can we give up so that we can have something much better.

What do we need to cut from our lives so that we can grow in Christ?

Don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not talking about being legalistic.  I don’t mean we have to cut our cable and internet off.  There may be things, though, that we need to stop watching.  We may need to scale back a bit.

Perhaps there are relationships that are harming our relationship with Christ.  I understand that we need to proclaim Christ to those who don’t know him.  However, if a relationship is standing in the way of our relationship with Him, then maybe we need to spend less time with them and more with Him.

Accentuate The Positive

Maybe we need to get go to bed early so that we can get a good night’s sleep and get up early and spend time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.

Maybe we need to turn that one TV show off.  Or use your DVR to record and schedule your TV time around our Bible study.

Perhaps we need to schedule regular time with brothers and sisters in Christ so that we getting fellowship and positive influence in our lives.

We can build whatever excuses we want in our lives.  It’s easy.  What’s more challenging is to find way to eliminate the negatives by accentuating the positives.

Do you have negatives you need to eliminate in your life?  How do you accentuate the positives?

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