The Two Young Couples (part 2)

The professor smiled and said, “Let me explain.” He told the student how the computer takes every bit of data, and it gives it either a positive electrical impulse or a negative electrical impulse, and then stores it away. Then the computer simply recalls the information and combines it in the right order. It does it so quickly because the information has already been categorized.

Then the professor said something that really got the young man’s attention. He said, “The computer works much like the human brain. Before anything ever goes into our mental computer, before any sight, sound, taste, feel, or intuition gets stored in the brain, it’s first stamped either positive or negative. That sensation is permanently stored in our memory. That’s why sometimes you can’t remember a person’s name, but you can remember how you felt about that person.” The professor went on to say, “But unlike a computer, every person develops a habit of mainly programming their mind positive or negative.”

The professor’s words turned on a light in that young man’s mind. He realized he had gotten in the habit of making himself miserable. Without even knowing it, he had been stamping everything in his life as a “negative.” When he saw his friends next door, all he could see was what they had and he didn’t. “They’ve got a bigger apartment…negative. They’ve got a better car…negative. They get all the breaks…negative.” He realized that the reason he wasn’t enjoying his life was that he was categorizing everything he was putting into his mental computer as negative.

Unquestionably, what you put into your heart and mind is what you’re going to get out. Sure, you may have negative circumstances. Maybe you didn’t get good breaks. Maybe you didn’t get the position you were longing for. Now instead of automatically stamping it “negative” and storing it away, turn your attitude around. Remind yourself, “I know God has something better in store for me. I know when one door closes, God can open another door.” When you do that, you will take that negative situation, turn it around, and stamp it “positive.”

You can do this even in your most difficult times. Maybe you lost a loved one. I know that can be painful, but our attitude should be, “I know where they are. They’re in a better place, a place of joy, a place of peace.” When we do that, we’re stamping that experience as a “positive.”