Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash
Think on These Things
I heard a story of a doctor who had completed a routine examination on a child when the mother mentioned her concern about her son’s craving for junk food. After thinking for a moment, the doctor asked the boy, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I want to be a doctor,” the boy replied.
“And what would you say to a boy whose mother complained about his wanting so much junk food?”
The boy quickly answered, “I’d say, ‘It’s all right, Son. I ate junk food when I was a kid and look at me now!’”
“You are what you eat” is a cliché that has been around a long time. Nearly everyone in this nutrition-, calorie-, exercise-conscious society knows that you cannot feed a body on junk and expect that body to perform as a healthy specimen of humanity. Try to find a magazine that does not carry an article, if not a regular column, on health, fitness, diet, or exercise. Do you ever wonder where they come up with them all?
Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash
As Christians, knowing our bodies are temples of God, we must not neglect caring for them and properly maintaining His temples. But we must be as conscientious about our spiritual nutrition as we are with our physical. Christians are aware of and concerned with the final abode of the soul. They accept God’s gracious invitation to believe on Him and become followers. But all too often, following salvation, we forget that it requires daily maintenance. There are causes and effects for our souls, just as with our bodies.
Back in the beginning days of computers (No, dear, I did not ride on a dinosaur.) there was an acronym, GIGO, which meant “Garbage In — Garbage Out”. It meant the input had to be right for the output to be right. (We all know I’m not a computer person, so don’t give me a hard time about that bit of information.) It’s the same with our souls. Our subconscious does not filter the input we expose ourselves to. Anything that goes into the subconscious stays in the brain. The subconscious does not discern right from wrong or make character judgments — the conscious mind does.
We discuss this often in our Ladies’ Bible Study. What kind of music or programming are you inundating your senses with? “I don’t pay any attention to the words” doesn’t keep your subconscious from appropriating worldly lyrics or conversation. Just because you looked at, but didn’t see, or listened to, but didn’t hear something doesn’t mean your brain did not store it away for your soul to feed on.
How can our fruits be love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance when we have actively or passively dined on filth? What Olympians our souls would be if we took to heart Paul’s Philippian admonition:
““Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.” ”
As for my thoughts about this coming of November, with colder weather, with the gladness and gathering together of Thanksgiving, I have to say that the reason I love November is because it begins the Advent season. I hope we are all preparing our hearts and lives not just for the feast of Thanksgiving, but also for the upcoming holy season of advent.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and look forward with great expectancy!
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A Story of Humility…
One of the saddest aspects of our time is the lack of respect for elders. Dancer is a fancy young pony who is full of himself and ready to put down others with a shake of his head.
He has judged the old work horse, Dan, as a useless has-been, and disrupted the easy-going life at the farm. Tom T. has a story to tell him. When he meets and falls in love with Lacy, his new owner, he learns a lesson in humility.