A roaming mind can keep us from the will of God and distract us from important things. How many times have you been watching, listening to, or reading something that was rather important or really speaking to your spirit, and next thing you know (in your mind) you are at home in the kitchen, at the gym, or at the office going threw paperwork? It happens to me often. We end up missing some very important information because we have allowed distractions to interrupt our focus.The enemy loves to get our mind off of, or away from, anything that is going to be of any help to us.

   Being present in the moment with our full attention on the matter at hand is challenging with all of the distractions in the world now days. There are so many things that can take our focus off of what is going on right in front of us in this busy world that we live in. I wonder how many times a day that the Lord tries to speak to us through someone, something, or a situation, and we miss it because we are not paying full attention.

   I can not tell you how many times I have been reading something only to get to the end of a few pages to realize that I have no idea what I have just read because my mind has been elsewhere. As I read it again, with full focus on what I am reading, it is like I am reading it for the very first time because although my eyes read, my mind was elsewhere, and did not take in the information that I was reading. This is what the Lord used to bring to my attention my problem with a roaming mind and how to correct it. Every time that I am reading and I notice that I am thinking about something else, I stop and tell myself to focus on what I am reading and I go back to where I last remember what I was reading about. Sometimes I will have to do that several times and read the same paragraph time and time again before my mind will stop wondering and I pay full attention to what I am reading. But as I discipline my mind in this manner it does get a little better each time and I am glad to say that I am able to focus and keep my mind on what is in front of me much more now.

   There have been times that I have had to ask someone to repeat what they have just said to me because my mind got distracted with the thoughts of something that I had going on or something that I had to make sure that I took care of that day. I use to not ask that of someone when I had not paid attention to what they were saying because I did not want them to think that I did not care about what they had to say. I would act like I was paying attention and give a general response or change the subject all together until I gave the wrong response one day and really hurt my friend’s feelings. I realized that day that it was better to ask them to repeat themselves and tell them that my mind had wondered off.

   The manner in which we get distracted from what is going on in the moment are many. But if we are getting distracted from something that is very important, life giving, or positive, it may very well be the enemy putting that distraction in us. He wants to distract us from anything that is good and will bring any type of positivity, peace, joy, power, love, wisdom, or spiritual growth to us or others. He will even use T.V. or music or a phone to distract us if he can. But we can fight against that manner of attack  by simply turning them off. We can get distracted by the kids, the animals, our spouse, the noise of the dryer going, the honk of a horn from a passing car, the thoughts of what we are cooking for dinner, the thoughts of the situation that our friend is in, and on and on. But as long as we pull our attention away from the distraction and back onto what is in front of us then we are defeating the enemy from his attack of distraction.

   Whenever you notice that you are not paying attention to what is going on in front of you, stop yourself and gain focus back on what is in front of you. Even if you have to do that fifty times a day, keep doing it. The more that you do this, the more that you will be able to pay full attention to what you need to pay attention to because you are training your mind to stay focused. Don’t get discouraged when you have bad days and your mind is all over the place, thinking about everything but what you need to be focusing on. We will all have days like that but we have to keep up the fight, putting our full attention on what is in front of us.