{"id":220,"date":"2014-09-23T06:33:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T11:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calledtolifecoaching.com\/?p=220"},"modified":"2020-04-11T23:02:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T04:02:32","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-our-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calledtolifecoaching.com\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-our-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Bible say About Our Thoughts?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, actually really late last night, I picked back up our “Journey to Joy.” I mentioned how I used to let my mind be filled with whatever came along and sometimes even sought out the really emotional junk. That was a bad habit and my mind, my life, suffered because of it. I realized in order to change my life, I needed to change my mind and the words I spoke to myself…my daily affirmations<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n A couple of weeks ago, I wrote, “Who I Want to Be…A Joy Thinker.”<\/a> Making that decision years ago was the starting point of my mental transformation. I realized and decided, I had to choose what I wanted to think about.<\/strong> Not only did I need to stop force feeding my mind a bunch of garbage, I needed to stop just letting my mind wander and accept any thought that popped in as worthy of thinking about.<\/p>\n \n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In his book, The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life<\/a>, Tommy Newberry, taught me about what he called, “The Laws of Emotional Strength.” <\/a> The first Law is, “Whatever you dwell upon becomes increasingly prominent in your own mind.”<\/em> His second Law, The Law of Exchange, states, “You can do away with a negative thought only when you replace it with a positive thought.”<\/em><\/p>\n And in the words of St Paul the Apostle and best selling author<\/a> in his own right, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”<\/em> \u2020Philippians 4:8 Another translation reads, “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.”<\/em><\/p>\n If we are serious about living a joy filled life, it starts in our own mind. A joy filled life is not dependent on anything other than ourselves.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n How awesome is that? My ducks don’t have to be in a row before I can experience joy. My children don’t have to behave, my husband doesn’t have to become someone he’s not, my job doesn’t have to change, my life doesn’t even have to change! The only thing that has to change is me and I can control that (for the most part. I am not talking about serious mental conditions or physical imbalances).<\/p>\n I can choose what music I listen to–music that edifies God and brings my thoughts to higher things or music that just gives off a weird beat filled with angry, resentful, hopeless lyrics. Ginny mentioned recently how her little guy was soothed by the sound of Gregorian Chant. The post title, “A State of Mind.”<\/a><\/p>\n I can choose what information I take into my mind and heart–the news filled with sensationalized stories of death, destruction, fighting and controversy? No wonder we live in such a negative world. As Tommy states in his book, The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life<\/a>, what if the weather man reported a 70% of sunshine instead of a 30% of rain.<\/p>\n\n