Hi Rosemary.
You say your mind wanders constantly if you try to meditate? Hmmm. Two things come to mind -- a physical reason and/or a mental reason.
I. A physical reason might be because you are being affected electro-chemically. Are you on medication that would overstimulate the brain, up the blood pressure, slow the pulse? Or are you steeped in caffeine or sugar or something that will make the brain hyper-active. The weather conditions or the phase of the moon, or of your menstral cycle, are all physical factors that could interfere with quality meditation.
II. Otherwise, are you overwhelmed with so many things on your plate (social, psychic or otherwise) you cannot focus on one thing? Is "the committee" on duty, telling you what you should do, what you must do, what you ought to do, what you dare not do? If "the committee" is yammering at you, just ask for the mind of Christ to come in and take over and then give yourself up to it; it will happen. From there, you will be able to find the "peace of mind" needed to have a little talk with God -- pray and meditate and worship.
Sometimes, too, when I am having a hard time "connecting" it is my ego that wants me to pay attention to IT rather than to set it aside so I can talk to God. It (the ego) will bring all kinds of little nit-picky things to my attention, trying to tell me how important it is that I do something about it, review it, get mad about it, apologize over it, be afraid of it, and then my job becomes one of "animal trainer." I have to tell my ego mind to "Chill!" and assure it that we will play later, but right now I need to sit still and be quiet.
I do think that this is what is meant in the UB when it talks about Jesus acquiring self-mastery -- "even of the mind." It is worth the persistent effort to attain this kind of self-mastery because there is nothing more gratifying that sitting in the presence of the Prince of Peace, or feeling the divine embrace of the Universal Father.
_________________ Gerdean O'Dell Author: "Secrets of Promise"
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