Guarding Your Mind: The Power of What You Let In

What was I thinking?

That’s not a question borne of age or frustration. While age does a number on our mental faculties, that is not what prompted the question.

The question betrays a sense of the things in my mind that don’t belong there.

If you eat sugar by the barrel, your body suffers. The adage,  “You are what you eat,” is true.

In Nicaragua is a lake absent of life. Algae is its only resident. You find no fish, only stink. It’s because sewage pools into a toxic sludge.

So it is with minds.

Wisdom instructs that what we put in our minds will remake our lives.

Solomon said:

“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered,” (Proverbs 22:24)

The anger of another is a leech that sucks the life out of you.

Jesus knew our mental activities determine physical outcomes.

“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)

It is root and fruit. A person’s words and actions come from what he thinks. A polluted mind cannot and will not do good. It is impossible.

What you allow into your mind is what you become. Reading bad writing contributes to poor writing. Listen to another’s anger, and your words become laced with critical remarks. Let fear in, and suspicion of everyone results. Hear messages of hope, and the sun shines every morning.

The secret is what you open your mind to. We live in a constant artillery assault on our minds. The media (in all forms) tugs at our attention. Their creators and “media stars” know how to open the lock of the mind and manipulate emotions. They dump on you what they want you to feel.

Rage motivates, so they spew hatred. Using names to label opponents accomplishes an evil end. We do the same. That is true of fear and disdain.

Reading some outlandish Facebook posts will trigger my darkest emotions. And I follow, despite knowing better.

One lesson I am learning is to protect what I let into my mind. For what I let into my mind is the person I will become.

Do I want to become that person?

Gandhi said he would not let anyone walk across his mind with their dirty feet. People and posts leave footprints. Muddy ones turn you from Christ’s example and words, and soft ones promote love.

I have to decide if what I read, listen to, and watch will make me a better person.

Paul instructed the quarreling Philippians:

“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.” (Philippians 4:8)

Does my input match the things in that verse?

In a few months or years, I will look into the mirror, and it will tell me what I have let into my mind. Will I like what I see in the mirror?