Oct
10
Are you responsible for your thoughts?
I have many thoughts in my head. They come from numerous sources, which can include:
- God
- My self: I am a spirit, a soul, living in this mortal body, I have my own thoughts
- My body: It has natural desires and tendencies
- My senses: whatever I may be looking at, or listening to can introduce thoughts to me
- The Adversary (Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, what you want to call him and his minions)
With all these possible sources for thoughts in our mind it can be quite a challenge to discern where the thoughts are coming from. It can also be a challenge to actively manage them. It is easy to assume that if we have a thought in our mind, we put it there and we are responsible for it. This is not always the case.
Understanding this is extremely important!
In my opinion, this is one of the first major steps in learning how to fight Sin and win.
Our mind is a very incredible tool. It does things for us even without our telling it to. It even has what I call, “default mode”. Default mode is the setting that our mind is on when we are not actively managing it. Our mind receives thoughts from all the different sources and puts them to use. Some call this, letting your mind wander.
Just to be clear, I am a firm advocate of dreaming and being creative. Letting our mind wander can be a good and helpful thing in certain situations, as long as we are aware that it is wandering and we are ready to re-take control when we need to. It is like riding a horse. If we just sit on the horse and let slack the reins, that horse may just wander all over, until we take in the reins and tell it, “whoa”.
If we are not aware of what our mind is doing, or the instructions it is receiving from other sources, it can get out of control quickly. Learning how to take control of our mind can be an overwhelming task at first, especially if we have never learned and practiced controlling it.
What I have written thus far in this post can be at lot to take in. Though it is vital to understand and internalize. In subsequent posts I will do my best to elaborate how to take control of your mind and thus take control of your life.
For now, let me provide a brief answer to the question introduced by the title of this post. “I am only responsible for the thoughts I keep in my head.” Ponder that one and we will let this be our introduction to further posts.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
