Breaking Cycles

By: American Decency Staff

Stop the merry-go-round; I want off!  When a child is tired of spinning and starts to feel sick; when a teen or adult feels like they’re just spinning their wheels, getting nowhere, when we’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, we might well say with the child, “Stop the merry-go-round; I want off.

The truth of the matter is that we do get caught up in things we would like to break out of. So, how do we stop this merry-go-round we are on?

It’s been said that we’re a product of our environment. Whether you agree or disagree with that statement, there’s no denying that children of alcoholics, of drug users, of abusers, (the list goes on and on), tend to be drawn into those very same troubles.  Instead of an action it may be a character trait like pride or anger that you strive with instead. Many started out by saying, “I’ll never be like that;” yet, “that” is exactly who or what they have become.

Why did they become what they swore they would never be?  Too often it’s because that’s where they’ve set their sights.

“What?  I said I’d never be like that!”

True enough, but we must focus on what we desire to be, not what we don’t want to be.  As much as we don’t want to do or be something, if that is what we are looking at, that’s where we’re apt to end up.

When a farmer wanted to plow a straight line he’d set his sight on a rock or some such stationary object and stay focused on that, he didn’t look around to all the places he didn’t want to go.  If you are riding a bike and you look off to the side very long, you’ll little by little end up going toward the way in which you are looking.

If we don’t want to end up somewhere, but that’s where we keep looking, we’ll end up close to there regardless of where we want to be.

The Apostle Paul calls us to “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” He calls us to focus on what we want and to focus on our desired destination, not on the things we don’t want to do nor the places we don’t want to go.

If we want to break those cycles, we need to take our focus off the negative things we don’t want to be and focus on that which we hope to become.  If you struggle with impurity, focus on being pure; memorize scripture that has purity as its focus; think of ways to stay pure.  If you’re a Christian, allow the grace of God to carry you into purity; remember you are a new creature and are called to be holy.

Allow the grace of God to work in you freely instead of denying the power of His grace and focusing on your weakness.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, the Freer from sin, not on the sin itself.  Peter walked on the water until he took his eyes off the Savior and focused on the storm.

Matthew Henry put it this way, “Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they meet with in it.”

David, a man after Gods’ own heart, focused on and evaluated his life by Scripture.  Look at Psalm 119:59-60; “⁵⁹ I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. ⁶⁰ I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.”

So do as David did; point your toes in the direction you want to go and focus your eyes on who you want to be.

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