• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Official Site for Shannon Ethridge Ministries

Official Site for Shannon Ethridge Ministries

Author and Advocate for Healthy Sexuality and Spirituality

  • Home
  • About
    • One-Page Bio
    • Speaking & Media
  • Mentoring
    • B.L.A.S.T. Mentoring
    • B.L.A.S.T. Next Level LIVE Workshops
    • BLAST Badge Application
    • Affiliates
    • Trailblazer Certification Program
  • Coaching
  • Workshops
    • 4-Day Intensive Workshops
    • Women at the Well Intensive Workshops
    • Well Women Intensive Workshops
    • Couples at the Well Intensive Workshops
    • B.L.A.S.T. Next Level LIVE Workshops
    • Donate
  • Podcast
  • Store
    • Donate
  • Freebies
  • Donate
  • Contact

Thinking Equals Rehearsing

08/25/2017 by Nicki Bradshaw

Thinking Equals Rehearsing

Imagine an actor preparing to perform in a play. She memorizes her lines, gets inside the character’s head, and tries to imagine how this person would feel and act. She rehearses being that person. She thinks intently about doing what that person would do and saying what that person would say exactly the way she would say it. The more she’s rehearsed being that character, the sharper and more “automatic” her performance.

 

Something similar happens when we fantasize sexually or emotionally about inappropriate or sinful behavior. We are rehearsing when we think about the conversations we would have with a particular man if we were ever alone with him when we entertain thoughts of an intimate rendezvous or wish that a certain man would take special notice of us. When we rehearse these scenarios, we imagine what we’ll say and do in these encounters. Then when Satan lays the trap and leads that man your direction, guess what? We are more than likely going to play the part exactly the way we have rehearsed it. When we don’t guard our minds in our relationships with men, we weaken our resistance before any encounter takes place.

 

But we do have some choice in the matter. We don’t have to be sitting ducks. We can train our minds to mind.

 

One of my favorite sayings is: “You can’t keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep him from building a nest in your hair!”

 

Even though inappropriate thoughts inevitably pop up into every person’s mind, we do not have to entertain them. Such thoughts are not sin, but dwelling on such thoughts is essentially rehearsing for rebellion, and acting on such thoughts is sin. We can’t keep from being tempted, but we can avoid rehearsing, and we can certainly refuse to sin. No temptation becomes sin without our permission.

Excerpted from Every Woman’s Battle: Discovering God’s Plan for Sexual and Emotional Fulfillment by Shannon Ethridge. Copyright 2003. All Rights Reserved. Published by WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO 80921. Used by Permission. Not to be copied without Publisher’s prior written approval.  

 

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Every Woman's Battle

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2013-2020 Shannon Ethridge Ministries · Privacy Policy · Site by Design by Insight

Cart
  • Your cart is empty! Return to shop
Checkout - $0.00
  • 0
  • 1