La ♪ La ♫ La ♪ La

So, I was cleaning out some boxes last week and came across some of my CDs of Broadway Plays that I've been to. I brought them into work this morning. So far I have listened to Aida....not a good idea when going through a divorce...anywho. Now Avenue Q is playing. It's so frickin funny! Next I'll listen to Evita or Chicago. Undecided at this moment. I need to go see another play. It's been too long....

Shelly

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8

A Native American boy was talking with his grandfather. "What do you think about the world situation?" he asked. The grandfather replied, "I feel like two wolves are fighting in my heart. One is full of anger and hatred. The other is full of love, forgiveness and peace."

"Which one will win?" asked the boy.

To which the grandfather replied, "The one I feed."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds," and James Allen stated, "You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."

Another has said, "What the mind dwells on the body acts on." If you don't believe this, think how temptation works—first a thought that seems to come from nowhere ... we feed it and the thought begins to expand ... then one's feelings get involved ... and the more we think about it ... the more we hunger for it ... then we begin to rationalize and justify what we want to do ... and the battle is lost. It all starts in the mind.

As they say about computers: GIGO = garbage in garbage out. So it is with the mind. If we keep looking at and thinking about garbage, we will act out accordingly. But, if as the Bible says, we concentrate on thoughts that are noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, we too, will act accordingly. It's all in the mind, for what the mind dwells on the body acts on.

When tempting thoughts knock on the door of my mind, I try to remember to pray a very simple prayer, "Jesus, help. Jesus help," until the "door knocker" goes away.

Pastor Hersch