When I was a young teen I worked one summer on the back of a garbage truck, jumping off and grabbing the bags of trash then throwing them into the truck. We went down many dirt roads and by the end of each day we looked and smelled like we hadn’t had a bath in a week.
Each week on Monday and Thursday they come around our streets to pick up trash. We have two piles: one is trash and the other is recycling. On occasion I get to meet those men who come by and pick up the trash. On Mondays we are allowed to put out piles of larger items that we need to get rid of, things like the branches from trimmed trees, that old table we no longer use, lawn equipment that doesn’t work. With each week, I get an insight into just how much trash goes through our home.
This week, I took a different look at trash. I have several friends who have very different opinions. They share how they feel life should be on Facebook. They share it on a blog like I do.
I was reading today about how some of my friends have changed their diets to make sure they consume better foods to feed their physical bodies. But when you read their posts on Facebook you get an idea of some of the trash that they put into their minds. They will go to great lengths to make sure their bodies are healthy, while the one thing more powerful than their bodies – their minds – are starved and feeding on reused trash.
Over the past 10 years I have watched as so many people follow popular trends in books, programs, and self-help products. They jump to get that great book they’ve been told everyone is reading. We are told that it is the greatest thing because everyone is reading it. Well how do you know that is what is good for your mind? What if the popular thing is a form of the trash like what is put out in front of my home?
In this week’s theme about getting wisdom, we need to remember that just because it’s the popular thing, that does not mean it’s the best thing. Over 10 years ago a great book came out that so many ran to get. I watched how so many changed their prayer life over what they read in this wonderful short book called The Prayer of Jabez.
When thinking of this week’s theme, I thought back to this book and many others. It was such a popular thing to get this book and just say a short, cookie-cutter prayer, thinking that would make your life all better. Yet, as I mentioned yesterday, I chose to make one prayer for wisdom, then give God the credit for the good choices I made and ask for wisdom to handle the bad choices I made with that wisdom.
I choose every day to watch what I put into my mind. We cannot shield our lives in this media rich world with so many new channels to tell you what’s going on, with the social media telling you the story before you hear it on TV. But if you make that request for wisdom and search for it, then you will know what is good and what is trash that needs to be put out at the curb. With wisdom you will be able to read the truth in things and know how to separate the recycling from the trash. It’s time to change the filter of the input channel.
I’m Tim Gillette the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time to live your dream, to love what you do and those you share life with. Remove the trash from your life and become the RockStar in your world.
