This has to be one of my all time favourite quotes…probably because it’s an area I’m constantly trying to grow in!

Whatever I’m going through, whatever I’m facing…whatever is thrown at me, I’m reminded that my response and reaction begins in my mind. A lot of who we are as people is shaped on the inside of us. The bible says ‘as a man thinks in his heart, so is he’ (Proverbs 23:7)…and ‘out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks’ (Luke 6:45). Whatever is in us, will come out! 

I choose to see it like this, the mind is like a garden, and what you plant is what you get out! Every experience, word spoken over us and even our own thoughts are like seeds. They get planted in the garden of our mind. Often trying to render us powerless, to get us to believe we can have no control over how we think and feel.

In those moments we choose what we dwell on…effectively choosing what we water and give life to. Things can only grow and thrive when they are fed and watered! 

You might say ‘ what about the things that other people do and say to me’…

You can choose what you dwell on…you can choose what to feed…you can choose what to starve.

A starved seed won’t grow…A well watered one will!

Every time you give attention and come into agreement with a thought, you water it, you give life to it, you encourage it to grow…you determine what will be ‘grown’ in your mind. What you allow to be planted and fed, is what you will get out. You can’t plant stinging nettles and expect tulips to grow! 

 It takes choice and it takes effort, a conscious decision, to take control of what we allow ourselves to believe and come into agreement with. We must ‘capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ!’ (2 Corinthians 10:5) … Listen to the GOOD things, focus on the right thoughts, surround yourself with people who build you up and speak truth, get the truth of God word and speak it over yourself!

This verse from Philippians 4:8 seems good to end on: