Article October 2, 1989 Issue

Take control of your thinking...and your life

Mulling over injustices doesn't get rid of them. But the prayer that consciously embraces good does.

Deborah Skillin Dibble

Paul gives us good advice: "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, and if there be any praise, think on these things."^{Phil. 4:8.} Yet how many of us follow it? Aren't we more inclined to ruminate over injustices and things that make us angry? Don't we tend to put our energies into rethinking and reliving the unpleasant and unkind things that happen to us during the day?

An interesting thing often happens during all this rethinking. However angry we might have been when the incident occurred, there's a tendency to become even angrier each time we think about it. Resentment and malice begin to grow as we carefully mull over every terrible detail of the experience, and we are actually cultivating evil in our own consciousness. Ultimately we run the danger of becoming consumed by it. Mrs. Eddy writes, "You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control you in the second."^{Science and Health, p. 234.}

Consider again Paul's words "Whatsoever things are of good report; ... think on these things." When we're controlling our thought in this way, we're not just looking on the bright side of a bad situation. Neither are we ignoring a problem. We are refusing to allow destructive (and more than likely self-destructive) thinking to take control of our life. Getting these unproductive, harmful thoughts under control and out of consciousness enables one to think and pray clearly. The ability to act with assurance and without malice follows.

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