Happy Thoughts?

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. – Philippians 4:8

So, um … this is really hard, is it not? I’ve spent some time this week reflecting on this verse and holding my thoughts up to it. I’ve discovered a couple of things:

* Sometimes following this advice makes me feel very boring. There, I admit it. Nobody likes a Pollyanna. Except God, of course, whose opinion ought the be the only one that matters …

* Most things I can think of comprise both lovely and unlovely aspects, and yet my mind jumps first to the unlovely, then (perhaps) to the lovely. When I do think of the lovely in things, it’s nearly always tempered by an underlying focus on the unlovely.

* My Web habits do not help. It’s not like I spend my days surfing porn or anything, but if I really get down to it, isn’t Failbooking just another way to make fun of people? Don’t I read the Huffington Post because I know somebody’s done something that will make me mad?

* It’s a lot easier to think on the right things if I don’t get off track in the first place. I found myself earlier this week standing at my sink doing dishes, running and re-running a scene through my head that involved a certain person picking a fight with me and what I would say in response. I left the kitchen mad at that person, even though none of it had happened in reality. But the next time we saw one another, I found myself hard-pressed to be friendly. Wonder how different it would have been if I had been thinking about this person’s good attributes while I did dishes.

I knew I had a tendency to think negative, but I didn’t realize what a big problem it is for me. I also had no idea how hard it is to get out of the rut of that kind of thinking.