What Do You Think About ?

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

It is always the best route to think good about people in general but probably is very difficult to actually put into practice.  It seems that I deal with this continually in my life and especially more recently in our present living situation.  Staff people tend to treat you affectionately just because you are old and they are trying to make you feel comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.    One thing that seems to be lacking is what I would call “sincerity.”  The word “sincere” basically means “without wax.”  In the old days when a marble vase was for sale and if it had a dent in it, they would cover it with wax and could be seen if you held the vase up to the light.  If the vase was smooth all over, it was sold as “sincere” or without wax.  It  is hard to find people who are without wax or are concealing their true feelings towards others.  It isn’t a new problem or Paul wouldn’t have written the above passage as he was being led by the Holy Spirit.

The best of people have flaws in one area or another and so the remedy is the above practice.  Paul sums it all up with eight things.  It is a lot better than Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking.  These eight items  can be used with people or that which is going on in your own mind with all kinds of “conspiracy” theories  whether it be from the government all the way down to who did what to you yesterday.  My parents said that old saying quite often, “If you can’t say anything good, don't say anything at all.”  There must be however, something that is on the profitable side about any given circumstance.  It  would be good to just copy the 8 words, “true, honorable, just , pure, lovely, commendable, excellence and praiseworthy, on a piece of paper and tuck it into a place where you could keep it handy to pull out in times when your mind wants to go in another direction.  Instead of calling a person a “nitwit” try to think of some of their good traits based on the above passage.  We are living with a lot of people who all kinds of dementia and some of them just go around looking for their dead husband or dead father or mother.  They rattle the door knob at all hours when they walk the halls and sometimes I get irritated but then after realizing their mental state, I go out and have prayer with some of them.  Another one has a hell like an indian on the warpath and I do the same thing with her.  I can always think, “There but by the grace of God, go I.”  I only hope that the rest of the world uses the above passage when they think of me and my walk in this life.  Praise God for the renewing of the mind.  “Think about these things.”