Think About Such Things

Philippians 4:8 NIV: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”

The book “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale was originally published in 1952. Sorry, Norman, but Paul beat you by almost 2000 years on this concept of positive thoughts.

This is quite the list if you examine each word. I tried to do that in this piece, creating each word art separately and focusing on how to represent it. It’s a fun exercise to go through each word and allow something to come to mind. What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear “lovely”? Can you imagine a scenario that’s praiseworthy or an admirable person?

There is a reason this practice is important. In fact, in the verse right before this, Paul writes about “The Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (vs. 7). Yes, we should pray for peace of mind and heart, but the practice of purposefully thinking of something good, lovely, or praiseworthy actively pushes some of those sinking, life-stealing, chaos producing thoughts to the periphery… which in turn brings more peace!

Let’s be honest: the amount of things that swim around in our thoughts and emotions that defeat and destroy joy is enormous. It didn’t take me very long to find words to scratch into the border of the woman’s thoughts. I thought about putting all those negative ideas on the ground, but they still hover in our minds. The practice of gratitude, finding goodness, and dwelling on those things shoves them aside, but they will return if we aren’t diligent.

May this image remind you today to pause and intentionally focus on one of those valuable words, and just maybe, you’ll find a little peace.