Mind Your Mind
When we’re young, we’re told, ‘Mind your manners.’ When we launch out into a career, we’re told, ‘Mind your business.’ Well, here is some wise counsel that applies to all of life: ‘Mind your mind!’ When you lose the battle of your mind, you lose out everywhere else! In Proverbs 23, Solomon outlines six principles to live by when it comes to thinking:
(1) Your thoughts determine your character. ‘For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.’ Before you tell a lie, you first entertain it and think like a liar. Before you commit adultery, you first entertain a fantasy. So if you don’t want to do something, stop dwelling on it!
(2) Don’t waste your thoughts on people who don’t value them. ‘Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.’ (Proverbs 23:9 NKJV)
(3) The first person you must learn to lead is yourself. ‘Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.’ (Proverbs 23:12 NKJV) As long as you keep growing, you can keep leading.
(4) Be sure your role models are people of principle and integrity. ‘Do not let your heart envy sinners.’ (Proverbs 23:17 NKJV)
(5) Remain confident that the vision God has given you will come to pass. ‘Be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day; for surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.’ (Proverbs 23:17–18 NKJV)
(6) Remain steadfast in what you know is right. Don’t get side–tracked. ‘Hear and be wise; and guide your heart in the way.’ (Proverbs 23:19 NKJV)
Bottom line: Mind your mind.