Mind your mind
Martha Olawale
“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:45
I recently heard a song I’ve not heard in decades and was surprised that I remembered every word in it. The simple trigger was a melody that sounded familiar from a time I could only travel to in my dreams. I had never thought about it for years, but those words were buried deep in my mind without my knowledge.
Unless we live alone on an island, we do not have control over most things we see or hear, but understanding the power of our mind helps us navigate better. Solomon said in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. With all the noise we must deal with and the wealth of information we have today, intentional assimilation is necessary to stay afloat in the drowning ocean.
I always tell my children, “What you give your mind to, forms what you believe.” No matter how bizarre a school of thought or a thing is when you keep hearing it, it determines your interpretation. And what you stand and fight for reflects the well from which your mind draws. The mind is not an idle part of our humanity; it’s the most active and potent. It absorbs and controls our actions and reactions; no matter how intelligent a person is, the mind rules.
The human mind is like a well deeper than the ends of the ocean, and it’s important to mind what we pour into it. A little here and a little there fill the bucket we draw from it. If you fill your mind with goodness, you will draw worth from it; when you fill it with filth, you will draw dirt from it. You might not always have power over what you are exposed to, but when it’s within your power to change the frequency you subscribe to, take time to mind your mind.
As Christians, our foundation is built on the life and death of Christ Jesus, and the bounty of our hearts should reflect that. If all the world can see when they tug at us to respond are things other than goodness, mercy, and grace, we are missing the mark. There may be many pollutants around us, but our minds should be so saturated with the beauty and joy of walking with God that it rejects things that do not honor Him.
