Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything  worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and have heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:8-9 

I recently watched a talk given by Dr. Lisa Penney, whose life work is studying human behavior. In it, she stresses over and over again to her audience the importance of being careful with the kind of information we feed our minds. It reminded me of the countless warnings I’ve read in the Holy Scriptures about guarding our hearts and minds and being mindful of our thoughts. Dr. Penney emphasizes that your thoughts become your words, words become your actions, actions become your habits, habits become your character, and character shapes your destiny. The human mind is complicated and difficult to understand. However, we don’t need a doctorate to know that if we feed our minds junk, nothing good will come from it for it will only produce junk thoughts and actions. So, instead of engaging in idle words, gossip, dwelling in unforgiveness, we should diligently be careful with what we introduce to our minds and have a steady input of true, noble, honorable, pure, commendable, and pleasing thoughts.