Thoughts

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever 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. Phil 4:8

I’m greatly struggling with my thoughts this week. Not necessarily bad thoughts. Just busy thoughts. Writing stories and blog posts in my head. Imagining conversations. Flitting from this to that. Very little grounding. It’s amazing how we can be sucked in by busyness in our heads as much as in our physical activity.

The thing about Phil 4:8 is that it is not a laundry list of what I should not think about. Never once does it tell me to avoid allowing my thoughts to go where they’ve recently been going. But, it does tell me where my thoughts should go. It’s easy for my thoughts to not be technically bad but still miss the target. To excessively ponder things that distract me from keeping my heart and mind focused on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His glory.

There are too many prayer needs, too many disciplinary needs with my children, too many things that need to be studied, heard, and done to be caught up in my selfish thought world. So, I am challenged to regain the discipline of running my every thought through Phil 4:8. I’ve been here before. I’ll be here again. It’s a constant battle and striving to make sure that my thoughts are controlled. But my prayer is that today’s challenge to regain the discipline will make me that much stronger to resist the next bout of temptation to loosen the grip of control on my thoughts. May I truly grow.