Controlling your mind

Something that has stood out to me over the last couple of weeks is our ability to and responsibility to control our minds.

According to Oswald, "Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and it ought to be devoted entirely to him... This will be one of the greatest assets of your faith when a time of trial comes, because then your faith and the Spirit of God will work together... You will begin to see that your thoughts are from God as well, and your mind will no longer be at the mercy of your impulsive thinking..."

Ugh, I am such an impulsive thinker. Sometimes I think that I think too much. I've realized that often my impulsive thoughts get translated into impulsive speaking... and later, regret.

When I was in high school my parents got me the book "Every Young Woman's Battle." To be honest I have not gotten through more than a few chapters and it has been sitting on my shelf for years. I just picked it up randomly the other day and my eyes went immediately to a chapter entitled "Guarding your mind: Winning the Mental Battle."

The first section was about rehearsing - about how we rehearse in our minds what we are going to say (or would like to say) given a particular situation. According to the book, "rehearsing makes you susceptible to acting out the scenarios you have been thinking about." Instead of rehearsing situations in which you would be letting down your guard or getting even, the authors encourage rehearsing those situations and responding in a Christ-like and loving way.

Matthew 22:37-38 and Philippians 4:8 are great. I'll close with the one in Philippians:
What is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.