Think About These Things!

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Philippians 4:8

We are overwhelmed with people, companies, and things, telling us how to think in our culture.  With the advent of social media everyone from anywhere can give you their opinion on what is going on in the world.  It is so easy to become overstimulated with information and opinions.  Oftentimes, people post that they need to take a break from social media because they have allowed themselves to take in so much that it is beginning to overfill their mind and stress them out.  Social media is designed to be overwhelming and over-engaging.  Did you ever realize that the design is crafted so that the news feed never ends?  There is just a continuous outpouring of things that are going into your mind.  And if we are honest, a lot of what we see, if not most, on social media, news outlets, and the like is not good.  We are constantly filling our minds with garbage.  I had an old boss in my painting days, that never liked the choice of music I played, and he would say, 'garbage in, garbage out', you may have heard this expression.  What he was alluding to is that I was overwhelming myself with bad thoughts, opinions, and information, and that I would surely express an out pour of my bad music at some point.  The more bad we take in and naturally dwell on in our minds, the more stress, anxiety, despair, depression, and sadness we feel.  There is a remedy to this.  The Holy Spirit, through Paul, instructs us exactly what we ought to fill our minds with and think about.  Whenever a bad thought, or anxious thought, or the like fills our minds we should recall this verse.  We must "take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ", (1 Cor. 10:5).  This is done by training and practice.  It takes time and patience to take captive the bad thoughts and fill our minds with the things above, but it can be done.  There is scientific proof that the neurons in the brain can be rewired and become retrained to operate in a different way.  This is the renewing of our minds.  It starts with filling our minds with these good thoughts above.  What has been on your mind that keeps you up at night?  What thoughts or worries are constantly keeping you in a state of anxiety or depression?  Take captive these thoughts, pray out loud to God to help you capture these thought and ask Him to fill your mind with the list above.  Start today to train your mind to think about things above, to be eternally minded!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!