Change Direction

Psalm 19:12-14 ~ 

But who can discern their own errors?

    Forgive my hidden faults.

Keep your servant also from willful sins;

    may they not rule over me.

Then I will be blameless,

    innocent of great transgression.  

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart

    be pleasing in your sight,

    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

I sat mulling over the situation and I started to have an imaginary conversation in my head with the person involved.  I thought, "I should have said this in response."  Then I imagined what the person would say and my response to that. On and on it went until the next thing I knew I was really angry at the person and we hadn't even talked! 

Years later, it still makes me laugh when I think about it. This is something we've probably all experienced. Wandering thoughts can lead you down some bad paths in your mind.  A thought will pop into your mind and you start mulling it over ,and then the next thing you know you are anxious or upset or even mad. 

We often dwell on things we are dealing with - problems at work, a worry, issues with a spouse or children or someone else. And the more we dwell on the negative things, the more negative we become until we don't even notice it anymore. Repeated thoughts become so ingrained in us that they begin to affect every aspect of our lives. 

Yet, in this Psalm we are told to keep our thoughts pure, to keep them fixed on the Lord, to meditate on the things of eternal value.  I find it interesting that King David asks the Lord to not only keep him from willful, deliberate sins but from the hidden faults.  Many of our hidden faults or "sin" are the thoughts we think.

"It's impossible to control our thoughts!" some would say.  It is hard, but it is doable.  When an unkind thought or worry pops into your mind, don't dwell on it. Don't keep thinking about it.  Instead, pray and ask the Lord to help you. Pray, sing, memorize scripture, and replace those thoughts with other things. If need be, get up and get physically busy. And you may have to redirect those thoughts multiple times in a day. 

Scientists say it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days to make or break a habit. So breaking yourself from a cycle of unhealthy thoughts will take time and practice. It will take repeatedly replacing the negative or anxious thought with a positive one.

Let's work hard at making a new thought pattern so that we too can say, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you."