Discernment

Discernment-One night, when I couldn't sleep, I was idly thinking about what
I might write in my next blog. Mostly to stop myself from thinking how
frustrated I was that I couldn't sleep. The word "discernment" dropped into
my mind. To live like this, I know that I need obedience and endurance and
perseverance and stuff like that but it never occurred to me that I also
need discernment. But, upon further meditation, I came to see that there are
areas in which I need to have discernment.

The first area that I need to have discernment in is listening to different
preachers and teachers of the Bible. Be it at church, on tv, online or even
in a book or some other written material. I need to be able to discern
whether or not what is being said lines up with the Bible. If it doesn't,
then I know to discard that teaching, no matter how good the speaker is. In
order to do this, I need to know the Bible and know it WELL. That is one of the
reasons why I spend a lot of my time reading the Bible. When I was a new
Christian, I would swallow anything that anybody told me but, over the
years, I have become much more discerning. Now, if I am not sure about
something that has been said, I check it out in the Bible.

An area that I know I need more discernment is in the area of my thoughts.
It is so easy to let my thoughts go wandering helter-skelter but I need to
be more discerning about what I am thinking and, if it is not what God wants
me to be thinking, then I need to MAKE myself start to think differently. If
I did that, I bet I would have fewer spells of depression.

I also need discernment in the area of speech. If  I could speak, I know
that there would be too many times that I would make a quick, sarcastic
retort to something that has been said. But, because I need the speech
board, while the other person picks it up, it usually gives me time to cool
down enough to not be quite so rude. In fact, I often hear the Holy Spirit
say, "Don't say that". But, still, I will sometimes say something on the
speech board, maybe as a joke, and then I will wonder why I said it. More
discernment needed!

When it comes to "entertainment", I definitely need plenty of discernment.
Because I have so much time on my hands and not a lot to do, I watch a lot
of tv. But that requires discernment. First, thanks to the Lord getting on
my case, I have limited my tv watching to evenings. I figure that there are
a few good shows on tv, some middle-of-the road stuff and too much
disgusting stuff. I try to stay away from the obviously disgusting stuff. At
times, though, I will start watching a movie that seems ok when all of a
sudden there is a big sex scene or something else disgusting. Then I have to
discern whether or not to continue watching. At times, if it is a good
movie, it is tempting to keep on watching anyway. So far, though, I have
always been able to tear myself away. I mostly watch sports so I don't watch
many movies but when I do, I prefer the Youth or Family channels just to be
safe. My other form of "entertainment" is reading novels but I stick to
classic English Literature. Not much disgusting stuff in that.

One area that I really need more discernment in is what I listen to the
nurses talking about. If they are talking about normal day-to-day things
like holidays, kids or whatever, it is ok to listen but when they start to
gossip and talk about people, I need to just tune them out. When I was
writing this, I felt that the Holy Spirit was pointing out that this is
something that I really need to work on. I am just like anybody else and I
enjoy a good tidbit of gossip but, really, it none of my business.

Now I understand why the Holy Spirit wanted me to write about discernment.
As much as anything, it is to point out some areas in which I could improve
in discernment.