Chicken Soup for the...Chicken Soul???

Some time ago, I was given one of the books from the popular "Chicken Soup" series. I had been enjoying some of the stories, and had left it on the dining room table. My seven-year-old daughter picked it up and read the title. She began well enough. "Chicken Soup for the...". Then, as we often do, she looked at the first two letters of the next word and assumed she knew what followed. In this way, "Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul" became "Chicken Soup for the Chicken Soul". Say what?

Sounds somewhat cannibalistic, doesn't it? We got a good chuckle over the idea of a bunch of chickens sitting around sipping chicken soup. Unfortunately, with that wording getting firmly into her head, Rachel is having a hard time reading the title the right way. Even though she knows what the real word is, she always has to pause a second to make sure she says the right word. Even so, sometimes the wrong word still pops out.

We sometimes make the same mistake with far more important things when, somewhere along the line, we have picked up wrong ways of acting and thinking. Even though we know the thoughts or actions are wrong or unhealthy, we return to them over and over again. A professor in one of my counseling courses called this stinkin' thinkin'. (I believe he was quoting someone else, but I am not sure who.)

This stinkin' thinkin' keeps us living in defeat. This stinkin' thinkin' tells us that we are worthless...or hopeless...or helpless...or weak...or ugly. This stinkin' thinkin' convinces us that nothing has changed, and nothing ever will.

The good news for those who have trusted in Jesus is that in Him, we have been made new. We don't have to keep repeating the mistakes of the past. Nor do we have to depend on our own strength to change...to win. When we place our trust in Jesus, draw our strength and authority from Him, and focus our thoughts on Him and His truth, we will be renewed in our minds. The stinkin' thinkin' that kept us captive for so long can give way to the new person He has made us to be.

Rachel's habitual reading of the wrong title "Chicken Soup for the Chicken Soul" will no doubt go by the wayside fairly soon. (In fact, I suspect she sometimes reads the wrong word on purpose just to get a chuckle.) And we don't have to live with our stinkin' thinkin' that is there simply because old habits die hard. Our minds can be renewed. In Christ, we have been made new!

*******************

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

2  Corinthians 5:17

********************

...be transformed by the renewing of your mind,...

Romans 12:2