Virginia Pearce "Through His Eyes" meets "The Optimistic Child"

Just about one of my favorite things in the world is when something that I teach at school collides with a Gospel principle. That happened this week when I read Virginia Pearce's latest book. She has been my hero since I read "A Heart Like His". I am still trying to incorporate the things I learned in that book into my life. Now, more than ever, because that is what Bill was perfect at. That book taught the principle of keeping your eyes on the needs of the people in your world as those experiences come to you through the course of the day, instead of on "your list for the day".

Anyway there is something that I teach at school that I learned in "The Optimistic Child". It is called ABC. Something happens in our life. We will call it A, for adversity. It could also be called an event, an action, something said or done that was hurtful, a problem, and experience. B stands for belief. That means we have some kind of a thought about the event or adversity. Whatever that thought is leads to a C, for consequence or feeling. The feeling that we have is a result of the thought about the event (A). IF WE CAN CHANGE THE THOUGHT, WE CAN CHANGE THE FEELING! In a school setting it might look like this.

A-- Someone has a party, and you are not invited.

B--"He/She doesn't like me."

C--"I am a loser."

But if you dispute, analyze, correct the thought, it could look like this:

A--Someone has a party, and you are not invited.

B--"He/She doesn't like me."

CORRECTION/DISPUTE--"NO, I know they like me, but maybe they could only have two friends to their party."

C--"I hope they have fun, maybe next time I will get to go".

Well, Virginia Pearce has written a book based on the same idea. Hers looks like this:

Sensory/input/external data/experience

Beliefs/thoughts/interpretation/expectations

Emotions/anger/irritation, peace, depression, anxiety, discouragement

Actions/behavior

She talks about cleaning out our mind as if we were cleaning out a closet. When you really clean, you take everything out. You then make piles. There is the garbage pile, the DI pile, the "somewhere else" pile, and the "go back in" pile. She suggests we take EVERYTHING we believe out of our mind long enough to sort it. The TRUTH, as in Eternal (with a capital T) pile, the truth (small t) pile, and LIES. Make a list of each. Only let back in the Truth piles. Then when you have one of these events, measure it against what you KNOW to be true.

Don't accept every negative thought that pops into your head. We all have them. But if they are WRONG, and they often are, then they lead to negative emotions. EVEN WORSE they lead to negative thoughts about our self. And we all know where that comes from! Hope that all makes sense. I think it is pretty interesting and VERY helpful!