When I was younger I had this little Mickey Mouse record player. My mom bought me some records that had stories on them. One of my favorites was the story of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. In the story Brer Rabbit gets tricked into thinking that there is a person sitting on a log but in reality his friends have dressed up some tar and made it look like a person. As Brer Rabbit greets the Tar Baby he gets no response. Brer thinks this is an unfriendly person and keeps saying howdy to the Tar Baby with no response back. Finally Brer Rabbit gets so frustrated he begins to physically engage with the Tar Baby only to be stuck in mess of tar! The harder Brer Rabbit tries to get unstuck the more he gets stuck.
This is the story that came to my mind last night. Sometimes my thoughts become like that Tar Baby. My thoughts will race and I will try to get unstuck from them only to get deeper into the Tar Baby thoughts. It can be frustrating, and sometimes scary. I am a Christian and one of the things that I have found that can sometimes help is to focus my mind on scripture, especially the verses in the Bible that have to do with thoughts. Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think on these things."
How do you battle your Tar Baby thoughts?
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