Rick Osborn | Life Coach, Nutrition Consultant & Graphic Designer

Many times, small decisions can have big consequences. Living without understanding, moving beyond boundaries, operating without knowing the truth, making choices without conviction - all can get you into trouble. Up front and out loud, let me get straight to the point -

Look before you leap!

Watch your step!

Guard your heart!

There, enough said. If I thought that just mentioning these clichés would keep someone from making stupid decisions, I’d stop right here. Unfortunately, most of us are hard headed and willful, myself included. The cruel truth of the matter is that many times it’s the bad choices that we make, along with their unpleasant consequences that teach us the best and most valuable lessons in life.

We’ve got to be vigilant, watchful, careful, guarded, etc. with the decisions that we make every day. One misplaced step - one wrong decision - one unfiltered calculation can land us in the mud and even destroy our lives. So, how do we know? How do we keep from falling into a pit in the midst of life?

The answer lies in our filter. My question for you is - what kind of filter do you have?

Picture for a moment the best cup of coffee that you’ve ever had. Pouring hot water through savory, fresh, roasted coffee grinds produces a rich aromatic brew of coffee that engages the brain and body. If you’re like me, there’s nothing like enjoying a great cup of coffee in the morning. But, imagine for a moment what that cup would taste like without using the right filter. It would either be too weak, too strong - full of grounds and taste like gritty mud - not too appetizing.

This is much of what our lives are like when we don’t use the right filter. A filter is used to keep out the bad stuff. It’s that simple. If we simply allow anything in, then our lives become polluted, sludgy, messy, stinky, filthy with severe consequences that we’ll have to struggle to overcome. Even worse is the fact that our bad decisions and involvements can negatively affect others, especially those whom we love.

Now, I’ll ask you again. What kind of filter are you using for your life? Do you even have one? Have you ever even thought about what you’ve allowed into your life? Furthermore, how is it affecting you? How’s it affecting the ones that you love?

Even if you have a filter, it’s a worthy question to be asked. Examine it, try it and test it. Make sure it’s the right one for you - the best one that will help you move positively forward from this point onward. It may be that you’re dealing with circumstances as a result of not having a filter or of using a faulty one.

Use God as your Filter

The first step towards putting the right filter in place is to understand the truth about yourself and your situation in relation to God’s wisdom.

Christ stated in John 8:31-32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

My Suggestions for Adjusting Your Filter:

1. Ask God to reveal His truth to you on a daily basis.
2. Seek to know God in a personal way through prayer and studying His word.
3. Pray that God will transform you with His truth and wisdom.
4. As you learn more about God, allow Him to transform your life, creating the right FILTER for you.
5. Rest in the fact that you’re protected daily, because your choices and decisions are in line with God’s truth - a filter that He created because He knows what’s best for us.

Before your life leads you somewhere you don’t want to be, check your filter. Learn God’s truth, apply it to your life and live in freedom.

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If you want conscious, positive change in your life, it has to begin with you.

Open your mind and imagine a bird prior to flight. A bird cannot fly until it lifts its wings and slices the air, moving them with a downward thrust to propel its body skyward. Yes, there are a series of movements that must be engaged prior to flight, but taking flight never occurs until that bird makes the conscious decision to fly.

How about you? Do you want to fly? Or better yet, do you want to soar – soar beyond your current situation, well above the discomfort and pain of the here and now?

Imagine for a moment you’re that bird. And the ONLY thing that’s keeping you out of the sky is a choice – a decision. Perhaps your problems, whatever they may be, seem as impossible to you as the reality of actually flying. But remember – you’re a bird. God has equipped you to fly, to soar far beyond where you are right now. It starts with the single decision to do so. Until you make that conscious choice, you will never move beyond where you are right now.

Just like a bird that has feathers, wings and a tail to fly like a champ, so God has already enabled you to surpass your current situation. You may not yet know exactly how, but look around at your current resources. God has already provided the solutions. You just have to look for them. If you’re uncertain, ask God for the answers and He will reveal them. If you’re scared, make the decision for change, look upward and trust God to provide the air to lift you. It takes FAITH:

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Forsake all the doubt and the fear. Quit groaning about the hows, the whys and the wherefores. Lift your eyes to Him. Leave the rest and trust Him to give you what you need to get there while you proactively do your part. Having faith in God is like being that bird who fixes its eyes on the sky, DECIDES to fly and does its part (running and flapping of wings) to become airborne. God provides the air and has already ordered the laws of physics to make it happen. It may seem simplistic, but you must do the same thing in life.

Your desire to change may be one of the following:

• Lose weight
• Gain muscle
• Get healthier
• Find financial freedom
• Improve relationships with others
• Improve your marriage
• Career change or get a better job
• Defeat anxiety or depression
• Overcome addiction (alcohol, drugs, sex or pornography)

No matter your situation, if you want to change for the better it still comes down to one decision – and it’s yours.

Remember, you’re like that bird. Flying represents improvement, change and the freedom from your difficulty.

Make the choice to change your situation, trust God to empower you (FAITH) and take flight!

 

 Choose Change, Trust God & Take Flight [4:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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In the midst of my dealings with people, I find that those who commonly have major problems are often trying to follow two or more different philosophies at once. Let me explain. As we mature, we all struggle (consciously or not) to find the right paradigm by which to live our lives. In case you don’t know, a paradigm is a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality or life.

To be a well-balanced, healthy, moral individual, we must set our life foundation upon proper principles (the right paradigm). This follows what I wrote about in my recent blog about what I call “foundational suicide”. Without a solid true foundation we remain uncertain, confused and drifting through life without a proper sense of direction - which often leads to problems. Let me give you a simple example.

Mary is overweight. She eats a certain way and cooks the same way her mother used to cook when she was growing up. She tries to limit her portions so as not to take in too many calories and gain more weight. Regardless to all of her striving, she becomes more obese, getting fatter and more frustrated.

Mary’s concept of eating - the way she cooks, the foods she chooses, the timing of her meals, etc. - are all part of her nutritional paradigm, which is faulty. No matter how hard she tries, she continues to gain weight, making her more and more frustrated. She continues to build her nutritional house on quicksand, an incorrect paradigm, if you will. In order for Mary to achieve success, lose weight and become healthier and happier, she needs a nutritional paradigm shift or change.

You can apply this paradigm principle to any aspect of your life. If the rules by which you govern your life are wrong, the end result will also be wrong or less than desirable. If you take a cake recipe that’s missing an essential ingredient (such as eggs), no matter how closely you follow that recipe, you’re still going to end up with something other than cake. You need to change your paradigm/recipe. You can be sincere in your striving, but if your map is wrong, you won’t end up where you need or want to be.

Let me try to make it even more practical. I believe that everyone needs to have good, solid foundational paradigms, at a minimum, in the following areas to support a healthy, balanced life:

1. Nutrition
2. Exercise
3. Morality/Ethics
4. Religion

I’m not saying that the above list is all inclusive, and I realize that they do overlap a bit, but I believe that if you do not have correctly set values, beliefs, practices in the above areas, you will most likely have serious problems in your work, physical health and relationships with others. Many people seem to run into trouble when they have no core system of values, but instead follow their feeling of the moment. This obviously leads to trouble - something I call “goose in a windstorm” syndrome - someone who is aimless, wandering, unsure, frustrated . . . Need I go on? The list is endless.

The Apostle Paul put it very wisely in James 1:8 - “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Are you double-minded?

If you have two (or more) belief systems about any certain issue, whether it be nutrition, fitness, morality, work, relationships, etc., you’re going to be unstable. You’ll be blown all over the place and be constantly frustrated. It’s like the married man who has an affair (he believes it’s okay, which is his paradigm) and tries to maintain two different relationships. Full of deceit and dishonesty, it is based upon a faulty paradigm that eventually leads to disaster one way or another. Sure, he may get away with it, but at what cost?

One very important concept to remember about the paradigms that you choose for your life - our attitudes and behavior flow from our paradigms. Did you catch that?

If your behavior and your attitude about ANYTHING is taking you down the wrong path, it’s time for a paradigm change. Shifting your paradigm (your beliefs about reality, etc.) to a correct one is the quickest way to change bad behavior.

Being “double minded and unstable” is for miserable, lonely losers. If you want to change for the better and stop your bad behavior and unfortunate situation, adopt the right paradigms for your life. Stop being a “goose in a windstorm”. Be grounded and founded!