Guard Your Mind

Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. —Proverbs 4:23

I’m the oldest of seven children, and I thank the Lord for the conviction God gave my parents about controlling the kinds of influence that were allowed in our home as we were growing up.

As an adult, I still find it is crucial to guard my mind—to carefully choose the input I allow into my life and to reject that which promotes ungodly thinking. The world’s deceptive way of thinking comes to us through so many avenues—television, movies, music, friends, and social media, to name a few. A steady diet of these worldly influences will shape our view of what is valuable, what is beautiful, and what is important.

There are no harmless lies. We cannot expose ourselves to the world’s false, deceptive way of thinking and come out unscathed. Eve’s first mistake wasn’t eating the fruit; it was listening to the Serpent.

Listening to counsel or ways of thinking that aren’t according to the truth is the first step in developing wrong beliefs that will ultimately place us in bondage.