A man had bought a new gadget that had not been assembled. After reading the instructions several times he still couldn't figure out how it went together. Finally, he sought help of an old handyman who was working in the backyard. The old fellow picked up the pieces and in a few minutes had put everything together. The man who had tried and tried said, "That's amazing. You did it without even looking at the instructions." "Fact is," said the old man, "I can't read, and when a fellow can't read, he's got to think."

I recently read that the average person has 10,000 different thoughts every day. That's encouraging to me being that I try to come up with a new thought to write about every day. Those who consider themselves to be computer geeks are familiar with the GIGO. It is an acronym for 'garbage in garbage out.' What is true with a computer is also true with the human mind. There are times when the mind seems to drift and suddenly you become aware that uninvited thoughts have entered your mind. A good example is when you find yourself singing or humming some tune of a song you were not purposely thinking of. I'm sure that is the basis of the old adage that you can't keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.

2 Cor 10:5 exhorts us to "bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." If we fail to control our thoughts, our thoughts will control us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can change our lives by changing our thinking.

Col 3:2 encourages us to "set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."

Phil 4:8 "Whatever things are true, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things."

Once again you can change your life by changing your thinking. Replace thoughts of despair with thoughts of hope. Replace thoughts of anger with thoughts of love. Replace thoughts of suspicion with thoughts of trust. Replace thoughts of gloom with thoughts of cheerfulness.

And so what do you think? What you think will greatly influence how you live. It has been said that youth are too happy to think. Adults are too busy or too worried to think. Those in declining years are often too old or too sick to think. And then when death occurs it is too late  to think.

Rev. Kenneth Woods - Guest Blogger
(Mrs. Rhonda Summers' father)