Can you watch your thoughts? I’ve been trying to notice my own thoughts lately. It’s easy to see them skittering down an anxious path. Instead, I’m trying to focus my thinking in more constructive directions: hope rather than fear, actions I can take rather than the many things I have no control over, prayer rather than panic.
I keep coming back to Paul’s words in Philippians 4:9: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If I want, I can spend hours turning over lies, dishonor, injustice, impurity, those things that are not pleasing, not commendable, not excellent, not worthy of praise. There’s plenty of all those things to go around. But does it help me, help my family, those I lead and the world at large to think on all those things? I doubt it. I don’t want to be in denial, but I do want my thoughts to lead me toward hope and a sense of possibility, no matter what is going on around me.
Where have your thoughts been going lately?