God has small lessons of wisdom faithfully kept in His creation, hidden like jewels in a treasure chest, just waiting to be discovered. I discovered one of them during the years my wife, our two daughters, and I served as missionaries on a remote tropical Pacific island.

As I got to know the natives, I started spending more time with them fishing on the reefs. One of the things that always surprised me was seeing coconuts floating on the waves, even though we were miles from land. I always wondered how many hundreds (or thousands) of miles those coconuts had traveled. I noticed that even though they might have traveled for weeks, none of the ones I saw had sprouted. I asked my fisherman friend why. Amused by my ignorance, he replied that a coconut needs to be washed ashore and remain still for some time before it can sprout. My mind immediately began to swirl with spiritual lessons!

God desires us to develop a character similar to those tall, elegant coconut trees so typical of tropical beaches. But how many of us are like that coconut without an anchor or rudder, floating aimlessly, tossed up and down by life's circumstances, feeling battered by life's storms, seeking rest but finding none? How many of us long to "sprout" but cannot? Could the answer be as simple as casting our hopeless souls onto the broad, firm shore of God's love and faithfulness? Isaiah 26:3 says: "You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you." The Hebrew word for "steadfast" means "to lean on," "to support," "to recline." Our wonderful Creator is inviting us to trust Him completely!What prevents us from doing this?1. Imagination. The mind's ability to build bridges, paint pictures, and compose music in the mind before they become reality is truly amazing. But like almost everything with great potential for good, our imagination, when uncontrolled, can also be a great curse. Our thoughts and imagination form the basis of our being – who we truly are. The reality for each person is, in fact, first created in the mind. This is a sensible, as well as fundamental, principle of mental health. The Bible agrees, saying, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he..." Proverbs 23:7. Do we occasionally find our thoughts to be without purpose and direction, like the coconut floating on the waves? Or perhaps they are heading in a specific direction, such as when we don't know all the facts about a situation, and our mind gets busy trying to fill in the blanks with things like motives and intentions ("What did they mean by that?"), which can lead to doubt and insinuation. And soon our thoughts are filled with all sorts of scenarios, and we start to believe these scenarios are true, and our feelings get hurt – all before we even know the facts.Do we realize how our thoughts often lead us to who we are in the moment? Our imagination is a blessing only if it is firmly rooted in truth. In John 8:31 Christ says: "and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 8:32. Are we free? Mental health is the ability to see the truth as it really is, thereby freeing our minds from the errors of thought that so easily enslave them. For example, it might be true that you're gaining a few pounds, but that doesn't necessarily mean your spouse loves you less or is looking at other women. Just as our body is made up of what we eat, our mind and character are made up of what we choose to think. An uncontrolled imagination can also lead to another problem:

2. Discontentment. The world's first sin began with discontentment, which is the imagination (that same word again) that something better is being withheld from us. Eve lived in a perfect environment. Could anything better have been given to Eve? No. Only in her imagination. But that was enough. Now see where we are because of her discontentment.3. Worry. We tend to dwell on simulated or anticipated needs. Most of the things we worry about never actually happen.4. Living in the past or future. Have you ever played "If only I had..." or "If only I could..." (e.g., "If only I had a better job or a kinder husband..." or "If only I had never... I would be so much happier!"). The Devil's constant aim is to rob us of our present happiness. This is exactly what we are doing when we say that our present happiness depends on a future event or when we lament past events. Let's live in the present, not in the past or the future.

5. False hope. What a strange obsession! People tend to stubbornly cling to false hopes even after losing hope. This is considered an addiction and doesn't refer only to drugs or alcohol. Perhaps you've heard the story of the trapped monkey. Upon seeing a coconut shell full of rice (its greatest desire), it reached its hand through the small hole and filled its hand with the food. No matter how hard it tried, it couldn't get its rice out because its hand (now a fist) was too big to pass through the hole. Another thing it didn't know was that the coconut was chained to a post, and a hunter who understood monkey instincts very well was nearby, waiting. Refusing to let go of the rice, the monkey was caught, even though letting go of the rice would have meant its freedom. Self-delusion has a frightening power over the human mind.

Do we live in the clarity of our reality or in the shadows of imagination? Our character will reveal the choice. Let us cast our hopeless souls upon the Lord. Only in Him will we find the peace, stability, and joy He desires us to experience. There we can sprout, and our roots can deepen into the shore of His truth and love, and we will no longer be tossed to and fro by everything that seems good that blows our way.

Written by John Krum for A Family Forever. Translated and published with permission.

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