What Are You Thinking?

Read a title, hear a portion of a story, or just get caught in passing hearsay without checking facts or knowing the details behind the idea and it could be a recipe for disaster.  I am confident however that you have never experienced this phenomenon on either the giving or receiving side which is why I must warn you!!  Incomplete, incorrect, or even irrelevant information can cause you trouble.  The results of such could cause the following symptoms: worry, discouragement, pride, faulty character, judgemental attitude, instability, and unproductivity.     
For example, in our technology era it takes only a brief time to get a message out to many people which sets a stage for a great deal of hoax articles and false panic to spread.  Many times we pass the information along as truth without ever checking details, facts, or understanding the background story. Because many of the articles that spread like wildfire are outlandish and panic inducing it causes us symptoms of worry, discouragement, and many times lack of productivity. Many times we fill ourselves with false alarm and at other times false hope just because we choose to think on the incomplete, irrelevant, or incorrect information.

Or what about this! The other day I read an article entitled “Why Women Shouldn’t Run.” If I had  stopped at the title and not read the details, I would have been on an unstable plane because I coach a running program and have had many benefits from running; however in my mind I would have continued to see the title of “Why Women Shouldn’t Run” and questioned every running activity in which I participated.  After reading the article, I realized it should have been more appropriately titled “Steady Pace Cardio Training, Is It Effective?”  The article actually highlighted facts that support my current training style and gave me more reason to continue the method in both my workouts and that of future clients.  In this case the details really mattered because the headline was incomplete.

And we can’t forget this one! How many times have we been briefed about a person or situation.  We are given a subjective overview of one’s opinion of a situation we are about to enter or a person that we are to meet. If not careful, we can take a lot of irrelevant information and allow it to cause any of the symptoms listed earlier and all based on someone’s perspective. To be completely transparent and run the risk of embarrassing myself, I will pull an example from my home life.  This is also a nice insight of how I get the frantic description and Chris gets the labeled relaxed.   Deep breath - here goes...we like to entertain and we have a widely diverse group of family and friends.  Earlier in our marriage I would look at our guest list and stress over personality type, lifestyle, interest, language (and I don’t mean a foreign tongue), drink preference, and the such.  I would often express concern to Chris and tell him that maybe we needed to “explain” certain people to others so there wasn’t any surprises.  His response always short, steady, and simple, “Why do we need to do that? They are adults they should be able to figure it out.”    And guess what, it was always fine.

So what’s the point? It is simple, don’t cause yourself or others undue trouble by taking in or spreading incomplete, incorrect, or irrelevant information.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.  Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise
Philippians 4:8  NLT

Think on what is worthy of praise and be an encourager,

Shante