Patterns to Learn By

I briefly mentioned last week about seeing patterns relating to behaviors and things that were happening to me. Today I want to elaborate a little more on my “pattern blessings!”

Part of my affliction or blessing in seeing patterns involves a natural counting of everything around me. I count all the tiles in the bathroom. I count the stairs when I go up and down. I count the geometric shapes on cupboard doors or people’s faces; the stair railings, and practically anything at all. When I catch myself counting things around the house, I’ll usually stop and be surprised once again that I feel a need to count (often by 3’s) – and that as many times as I’ve counted those tiles on the floor or wall I should remember the answer and not need to count it again!

It seems to be some kind of strange mind game I play! But it can evolve into more of a distraction and sometimes dangerous if I don’t control my mind’s path. I count the dotted lines down the middle of the road as I’m whizzing along, even at high speeds on the highway. I’ll count the row of Bradford pear trees in the median or the crape myrtles on both sides of the winding golf course road to my home. I’ll have to make myself stop and concentrate on staying on my side of the road, going the correct speed, and watching out for oncoming traffic. So if I’m not careful, this blessing of seeing similar things can be a curse!

In fact, I watched a video clip about a very brainy guy who’s also a counter. But he stays away from the beach or very sandy areas, as he can’t handle the stress there: apparently it’s pretty stressful counting all the grains of sand! Thank goodness that’s not my problem! I guess you have to be able to see well enough to notice the individual grains of sand first! ;-) At least I’m glad I don’t have his special blessing. It can definitely be distracting at times!

The analogy here can be about the power of the mind and how we need to control it to take us where we really want to go. It’s a good thing to pay attention to what your thinking patterns are and how they are affecting the outcomes in your life.

Once I identify major patterns that are occurring, I choose to use this to reveal areas where God wants to work in my life. By keeping a journal over the years, I’ve also been able to see a lot of the repeat patterns that have led me to make certain decisions – that either helped or hindered me on my life’s journey. This can be anything from how you choose a date or a mate to choosing a job.

For example, do you seem to be attracting the same type of girl/guy with similar issues each time? Do you keep having problems with "stupid" people on the job? Do you change jobs, friends, locations often? Are you running away from something, or continuously making impulsive decisions? Often the problems I manifest in my life come from a certain way of looking at or handling things.

Patterns can become habits. They can be either creative or destructive – to you or others. What patterns have been popping up in your life? Keep on repeating those good ones and turn the other ones over to God for growth and power. If some troubling patterns emerge, seek God and let Him do the heavy lifting with you to bring positive change into those areas of your life.

Increase your best patterns and habits and let your negative areas diminish and fade away. You will then develop more of a habit of being a blessing to someone every day! And you will be in more of a position to count your blessings, as you experience your own "pattern blessings!"