So, that's what you were thinking!

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)

Fix your thoughts - this certainly is a telling statement as our thoughts have a way of getting away from us in rather short order, don't they? What we think about matters. What we ruminate upon over and over again will eventually cause us to make the right choices, or it will lead us further down the road of wrong choices. We cannot afford to be 'unaware' or 'willy-nilly' in our thought life. We need our thought life to be disciplined and determined.

While this is not an all-inclusive list of what we are to think upon, it is certainly a "telling" list that could help us see what we have been thinking upon and whether those thoughts are doing us more harm than good. Positive, true, and honorable words and actions actually stem from positive, true, and honorable thoughts. God is faithful to us - we are to be faithful to him. How many times do we choose a path that doesn't reveal much faithfulness on our part? If it is more frequent than not, we might just do well to consider what has occupied the space between our ears!

Our heart is filled with all manner of emotions - to trust our emotions to guide us is kind of silly because emotions can be positive or negative, uplifting or browbeating, wholesome or defiling. We cannot trust our emotions to be our guide. Mix bad thoughts with bad emotions and you will set a course for wrong actions. This is why Paul reminds us to set our minds on things that are honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. If we want to make 'excellent' choices it starts with 'excellent' thoughts. Emotions should never be our reason for doing anything - they will lead us astray quicker than we can blink an eye!

Whatever we do today, let it begin with taking every thought captive. That might mean we 'stop' thinking upon something we know isn't honoring to God and 'begin' thinking upon something that will not only bring him honor but will uplift us and set us on a straight course for our day. We don't accidentally think right thoughts - we have to purposefully choose to change our thinking. We can do this with Christ's help, but until we ask for his help, we may flounder a while in our negative and defiling way of thinking. Just sayin!