Winnie The Pooh once asked, “Did you ever stop to think and forget to start again?” I don’t seem to have that problem. I seem to think constantly and sometimes it’s overwhelming. Occasionally I even wake myself up in the night thinking. I weigh options and mull things over, not wanting to settle for something less than the best. I’m not often spontaneous, I’m much more of a “routine” person. I will admit that at times this has more cons than pros, but that’s the way I’m programmed.
I was mowing lawn today and surprise! I got to thinking. The lawn mower is an ideal thinking spot as there isn’t much else to do whilst riding along making beautiful rows of freshly mown grass. Anyway as I was thinking I began wishing there was a device that would record what I was thinking it while I was thinking it so I wouldn’t lose my deliberations after hours on the mower.
As I was dreaming about my special thought capturing device it hit me. What if this device captured every thought I was thinking…all the time? If I couldn’t turn my thought snatcher off and on, how would I feel about what it captured? How often are my thoughts unkind, unruly and un-Christlike? And what if others could access the thoughts on my device? Would I be embarrassed by what they encountered?
Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to
“demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ.”
This challenge is posed to every believer. What we think really does matter. We may not have a machine that records our thoughts, but we do have a Father and Creator who sees our hearts and hears our thoughts. Whether or not they are Godly matters to Him and it should matter to us. Our thoughts about strangers matter just as much to Him as thoughts about our friends and family. When we take our thoughts captive we make them matter to us as well. Deciding if they are pleasing to God and making the choice to stop thinking those that are not is a discipline that we learn by drawing closer to God through scripture, prayer and examining the life of Christ. Becoming more like Him inside and out is the ultimate joy in life and brings everlasting peace.
So as I thought some more about my thought snatching device I realized that I have some work to do before I want all of my thoughts captured…at least externally. I will have to keep working on taking my thoughts captive.
And for now I’ll stick to paper and pencil!
blessings and peace to you!
Paula
Paula Davis 
I brought up the concept of ‘judgement’ with the sunday school kids yesterday, creating the imagery of a video recording of every one of their actions which they would have to answer for to the LORD…then also told them that there was a separate track which recorded even their thoughts and what they did with them…(one of the boys suddenly got very concerned, his body language screamed it!)
I’m sure glad I’ve got the best mediator in my corner.
I read this and I stop to think about the gentle call I have had ALL morning to sit and fellowship with my Lord today…and yet, my thoughts are all scrambled and jumbled and I have mentally followed them down a rabbit trail that leads me AWAY from the quiet place where He sits…and waits for me to show up, like any best friend would when invited.
I popped over because Diane mentioned you on FB…following you now thru NetworkedBlogs…Thank you soooo much for the thought that stopped the chaos and brought me back to the one thought I should have 🙂 I pray you have a blessed day.
Thanks Bina!