Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious- the best, not the worst; the beautiful not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Philippians 4:8(MSG)
Take a moment and look at what the Word has instructed to think on. Do you think about these things? Things that are:
true :: noble :: reputable :: authentic :: compelling :: gracious :: the best :: beautiful :: praiseworthy
These are quite a lot of things I know to be true of how we should think. This is also a lovely guide for our thought life. Who doesn’t want to think about beautiful things right? Well maybe we are not entirely realizing what is ugly in our thought life. Do you think badly of yourself? Do you ever put down the way that you look or the way that others look? Those can quite quickly become very ugly thoughts. We all talk to ourselves and have a degree of self-talk right? Our self-talk isn’t always reputable, or true, or noble. Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (NKJV) If the things that we think are a reflection of who we, then we should seek after beautiful thoughts, relentlessly.
I want to encourage you going into this school year to put into practice having beautiful thoughts. What I know to be true is that when I have happy and lovely thoughts, you can see it in my eyes, in my smile and on the words that I speak. How you present yourself truly comes from the things you allow your mind to dwell on. At the end of the verse it says that simply thinking on noble things, and putting that into practice will cause God, who works everything together, to work you into his most excellent harmonies. Your thought life really has a very key role in how you interact with people, and simply just live your life.
One last thought from Romans 12:2, says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Let’s look at this in two parts: the first part is to not conform to the patterns of this world. My dear ones swim against the current. Dare to be different and be true to who you want to be. The world says that it’s acceptable to think poorly about yourself and use words to put yourself and your appearance down. Do not conform! The second part is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Going into this new school, we should renew our thought life with beautiful thoughts! Think on the things listed up above, think on true things, not gossip or slander. Think on noble things, not things you will regret. Think about gracious things, not things that will make you angry or upset. Think about the best things you could possibly think on, like how much Jesus loves you or that there is always a clearance rack to be explored.
“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose, and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”- Roald Dahl
Image found on Google images.
