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“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.” (Philippians 4:8, NLT)

It is so easy to put this verse into practice on a good day. On those days, everything already seems to be true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. But what about those days when, from the time your feet hit the floor in the morning until the time your head hits the pillow at night, nothing seems to go right?

Ever notice this is when the challenge hits hardest to think on the best not the worst; the beautiful not the ugly; the joyful not the sad; or the benefits not the drawbacks.

I recently read of a group of college professors who were asked to write about human motivation. After a long time, this is the statement they came up with:

What the mind attends to, it considers. What the mind does not attend to, it dismisses. What the mind attends to continually, it believes. What the mind believes, it eventually does.

Paul goes on to explain the way in which we are able to fix our thoughts and think about these things is through putting this discipline into practice. As we think in this manner, it will become our custom or habit to reign our thoughts in and focus on the good which God brings into our lives.

It all begins with fixing our thoughts on the good. In her book, Life Unstuck, Pat Layton puts it this way:

“What you say about yourself not only reflects what you believe but also direct your life, or can redirect your life.” (page 60)

The bottom line is – Our thoughts determine our actions.

We will act out that which we are believing.

Today I am joining … Testimony Tuesday and Unite and Titus 2 Tuesday and True Story and RaRa Linkup and Teaching What Is Good .