“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.
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.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me–everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT)

---

Turn that off!

Did your parents ever tell you NOT to watch certain TV shows or listen to certain songs as kid? Was it because they WANTED to ruin your life? Probably. But also…might it have been because they wanted to keep you from seeing/hearing things that would negatively influence your impressionable mind?

What Does Your Mind Eat?

Just like your body processes food and converts it into energy, your mind processes the world around you and converts it into thoughts and feelings. Those thoughts and feelings then inform your attitude and behaviors.

What we “feed” our mind can have a positive or negative influence.

Do you stop and think about what you’re mind is consuming? What is your go-to form of entertainment? How do you pass time when you’re waiting around? What kind of online videos or stories do you find yourself clicking on?

Forget Right or Wrong.

So how do you judge the quality of what you feed your mind? Many forms of entertainment or hobbies or pastimes don’t really fall into the obvious categories of “right” or “wrong”. Even the “good vs bad” question doesn’t always help. So let’s ask ourselves a new set of questions.

Is this wise or is this foolishness?
Does this encourage healthy thoughts or bad feelings?
Does this inspire me to be my best self or make me feel worse about life?

God created your mind to do amazing things; to create, to solve, to reason, etc. A nourished mind will work SMARTER, think MORE clearly, and be at peace.