My name is Amy Cravey.  Yes, I know. It sounds a little like “crazy” and can be confused with “gravy.” In fact, my father-in-law suggested naming our daughter Biscuits Ann so that she would have a yummy, southern name.  I didn’t go for it, obviously.  

However, the mail I get shows that people just can’t process the name “Cravey” for some reason. I get mail addressed to the “Carvey Family.” They sound like a nice family. Sometimes it comes to the “Crarey’s,” which is about as confusing as “Cravey.”  I have just gotten used to always spelling my name. C-R-A-V as in Victor-E-Y. And inevitably the person I am spelling it to gets a quirky smile on their face. 

It’s at that moment that I know even though I carefully spelled my name, they auto-corrected in their mind. I know, I spelled it out, but they heard “CRAZY” and they typed it in that way too. Their minds reverted to what they “thought” they heard, not what I actually said.  If I had a dollar for every time this has happened–well, you know. BUT it happens. Over and over it happens. 

You know we do that in other areas of our lives, too.  For example, when stress hits hard, we might revert back to old eating habits even though we have faithfully been munching on lentils and carrots for 6 months. When scary diagnoses are spoken, the fear rises, even though we say we trust the Lord with our life. We auto-correct to what we used to know, what we think we know, or how we think our reactions should play out. 

Have you ever been in a situation where someone is just confidently calm in the midst of chaos? Every bit of them is just operating against what the circumstances seem to dictate. They did NOT auto-correct. They weren’t swayed by their emotions or memories or previous triggers. They just stood. Grounded.

The Bible tells us in Romans 12: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” 

So, here we go. One way to not auto-correct in situations and events that might be less than fabulous in our lives is the daily discipline of renewing our minds. What does that mean? Good stuff in and bad stuff out! If you’re wallowing in all the doom and gloom, then your reaction is going to be doom and gloom. If you’re filling your mind with the good stuff, it’s going to be so much harder to auto-correct to doom and gloom when your life gets jiggled around.  

Ephesians 4:31-32 says “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  

Making a habit of forgiving and releasing people who hurt you lessens the chance that you cling to offense and, in return, poison yourself.  And boy oh boy, we sure think we are entitled to hold onto grudges and judgments against others. Heads up, buttercup– holding onto offense doesn’t give us power. It sucks the life out of us! It’s like drinking poison and thinking it will hurt our offender. Stop it.

Auto-correcting to our fleshly responses never ends well. And it’s hard! It’s soooo hard to practice daily the renewing of our minds and the releasing of our offenses. But I don’t want to be known as the person who overreacts when trouble comes. I don’t want to feel wobbly and unstable when fear tries to creep in. I don’t want to fly off the handle in a barrage of rambling words when I feel judged or pressured.  I don’t want to auto-correct to “CRAZY.” I don’t! 

And I don’t want you to auto-correct to what you used to know, what you think you know or how you think your reactions should play out. Join me. Practice renewing and releasing. Let’s put an end to our auto-correct kind of life and embrace peace, confidence and security in knowing our reactions are grounded in Christ and not influenced by things we have already put behind us.