Often times, we pay scant attention to our
thoughts. We say, after all, it was but a thought. We must never forget that
thoughts are things, thoughts are forces, and thoughts are the building blocks
of life. With thoughts, we are building the edifice of our own life, building
our own future. People blame their kismet [luck], their stars, and their
destiny. “Men heap together the mistakes of their lives,” said John Oliver
Hobbies, “and create a monster they call Destiny.” Destiny is not a matter of
chance: it is a matter of choice.
Awaken
to the power of your thoughts
We are building our own destiny, everyday,
with the thoughts we think. A thought, if it is constantly held in the mind,
will drive us to action. An action, which is repeated, creates a habit. It is
our habits that form our character. It is character that determines our
destiny. If we wish to change our pattern of thinking, we must cleanse the mind
of all the dirt which we have accumulated through the years. Our minds need to
be cleansed of thoughts of miserliness, avarice and arrogance, envy and
jealousy, resentment and ill-will.
William Phelps said, “That man is the
happiest who thinks the happiest thoughts.” I would add, “That man is the
healthiest and most successful who thinks the healthiest and most successful
thought”. There is a doctor who tells her patients that her medicine will world
only if they give their minds a good shampoo every day. Get down into your
consciousness and cleanse your minds of all those old, rotten, miserable
thoughts that keep you unhealthy, unhappy, and unsuccessful. There is another
doctor who says to his patients with a twinkle in his eyes, “Keep your upstairs
clean and your downstairs will be healthy.”
There are those who nurture thoughts of
hatred, of envy and jealousy in their hearts. How can they ever hope to be
happy? Hatred and happiness can never dwell together, even as darkness and
light can never live together. There was a man who met me a long time ago. He
said, “There is a fire burning within my heart: it will not be quenched until I
have shot down the man who was indirectly responsible for the death of my
father.” How true! Hatred is a fire which keeps on burning within the heart: it
burns away all your happiness.
Awaken
To The Power Of Your Thoughts
Take care of your thoughts and desires,
your impulses and ambitions, your feelings and fancies. The forces that are
around you have a magnetic power. They draw to themselves forms of a like
nature. If we are surrounded by angelic forms, they draw to themselves many
more angels. If we are surrounded by demoniac forms, they attract to themselves
many more demons.
We have heard of physically weak people
performing heroic deeds of valor far beyond their physical strength. I read concerning
a mother who weighed only 41kg. In a moment of crisis, she lifted the wheel of
an automobile beneath which her child had been caught. From where did she get
all that strength? The seemingly impossible is accomplished when determination
is accompanied by high purpose.
Conversely, low thoughts have an evil and
disturbing effect. Sometimes, in a fit of temper, we do things of which we are
not otherwise capable. Later, as we repent for evil deeds, we exclaim, “Some
devil must have tempted me!” We are not attacked by these tutties: we attract
them to ourselves. Therefore, let us take care of our thoughts.
The mind is one of God’s most amazing gifts
to man. “The mind,” Bishop Fulton J.Sheen said, “is like a clock that is
constantly running down and must be wound up daily with good thoughts.” The
minds of many, I am afraid, are full of unwholesome thoughts and wrong ideas.
It is such thoughts that do not let us live a healthy, happy and successful
life. Throw the dirt from your minds and fill them with thoughts of love and
peace and joy, purity and prayer, sympathy and service and sacrifice,
prosperity and success.
Scientists tell us we use only one-fiftieth
of the brain power available to us. Let us train our minds and ourselves to use
this fabulous power in the right way. Fill the mind with noble thoughts.
