MAD LIBS
Remember these? It came in a note pad and had different stories that had intentional blank spaces throughout. The reader would ask the audience for a verb, noun or adjective to fill in the blanks prior to reading the story. Once the blanks were filled in, the person would then read the story, which, as you can imagine, was completely silly and most of the time made zero sense.
It occurred to me the other day that we handle a lot of our relationships this way. We don’t ask clarifying questions and we walk away from conversations with a lot of misunderstanding. Left unchecked, our minds begin to fill in the blanks with negative ideas, beliefs and thoughts about the person or situation.
We then create a narrative that in reality is silly and makes no sense. But if we are not aware of the blanks and wrong beliefs, we then begin to build a case steeped in accusation and judgement. Yikes!!
Do you know who is an expert in the Mad Lib game? The devil! He loves to fill in blank spaces with all the negative things that are always rooted in fear. When we begin to partner with the fear, we empower it to grow.
We will then start to attribute bad motives to the person or situation, looking for evidence that backs the case you are building to support your beliefs. Before you know it, you end up convinced that the story you created is now true.
Here are some steps to help you break this Mad Lib cycle.
Repent for agreeing with fear.
Ask God where you filled in the blanks with the wrong beliefs.
Ask God to fill in the blanks with what He says.
Go to the person involved and ask clarifying questions to help you understand where they were coming from.
The goal in all relationships is to be moving towards connection, believing the best about the person.
We are all going to encounter situations like this. We must learn to recognize when we are having an experience where fear and pain are urging us to change our beliefs about people and treat them differently than God does. We then get to make a powerful choice to hold on to His perspective no matter what.
In this game called life, it is best to let God choose the noun, verb and adjective and have Him read the story!
Erin
