Priming

Still reading 'The Circle Maker', and once again I am compelled to share.  In the book, Batterson speaks of 'priming'. He tells of a study conducted at New York University. They gave two groups scrambled sentence tests.  The first group had sentences containing positive words like respect, considerate, and yield.  The second group had sentences containing rude words like disturb, bother, and intrude.  After the test, they sent each person, one at a time, to go into the hallway and speak to the person running the experiment about their assignment.  An actor was placed to be engaged in active conversation with the experimenter when the student arrived.  They were looking to see how long it would ale the student to interrupt.

Amazingly, the group who had read the rude words interrupted, on average, after 5 minutes of waiting.   The other group, primed with polite words, had 82% of the participants never interrupt at all.   The point was made that our attitudes and behavior are 'primed' every day by what we see and hear.

Batterson makes this point to encourage us to 'prime' our hearts and minds every morning by being in the Word.    He says:
"That's one reason I believe in starting the day in God's Word.  It doesn't just prime our minds; it also primes our hearts.  It doesn't just prime us spiritually; it also primes us emotionally and relationally.  When we read the words that the Holy Spirit inspired, it turns us to His voice and primes us for His prompting."

Wow powerful stuff.  I have one more quote from his book, and this one is a giant:
" One of the reasons that many people don't feel an intimacy with God is that they don't have a daily rhythm with God;  they have a 'weekly' rhythm.  Would that work with your spouse or your kids?  It doesn't work in God's family either.  We need to establish a daily rhythm in order to have q daily relationship with God.  The best way to do that is to begin the day in prayer."

Wow.  What are we priming our minds with first thing in the morning?   Facebook?  National news?  Secular music?Why is that deep relationship with God missing?

Priming our minds is like priming to paint.  With out that priming, or paint job is going to be much less beautiful than it could be.

Are you priming?

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