“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad
results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but
saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but
nettles”
(James Allen, As A Man Thinketh)
Most everyone understands
the biblical concept of sowing and reaping because we can grasp the simplicity
of logic. If we were to plant durian on our farm, we wouldn’t expect apple to
come up. But even though we can grasp the logic, we don’t always act as if we
understand the power of this principle. And we certainly don’t act as if this
principle will affect us.
An example: For many years
my morning ritual began with video games (or PSP to be exact). Most mornings
spending an hour or more on games and morning news before dashing off the
office. I haven't realized then that our minds are most impressionable
immediately upon rising in the morning and just before sleep in the evening.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that my sowing of these thoughts
would reap an ‘attitude’ at my workplace (impatient, demanding, shouting,
etc.).
I gave up my morning
ritual seven years ago and replaced it with a habit of reading. I read my Bible
or book of the week and on the way to work, I listened to motivational or
self-development audiobooks. When I sow “good thoughts” and thus I’ll
reap “good results.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “You’ll do best by
filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic,
compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly;
things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8, The Message).
We always reap what we
sow and that is especially true with our thoughts. As Emmet Fox writes, “The secret of life then is
to control your mental states, for if you will do this the rest will follow. To
accept sickness, trouble, and failure as unavoidable, and perhaps inevitable,
is folly because it is this very acceptance by you that keeps these evils in
existence. Man is not limited by his environment. He creates his environments
with his beliefs and feelings. To suppose otherwise is like thinking that the
tail can wag the dog.” Think about it!
THINK BIG. START
SMALL. GO DEEP.
References:
1. As A Man Thinketh (1903) by James Allen
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