Bible Reading: Philippians 4:6-9
Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Philippians 4:8
THERE ONCE WERE a mom and dad having trouble with their twin boys. One was abnormally happy all the time-a total optimist. The other boy was continually depressed and finding something bad about everything-an absolute pessimist. When the parents ran out of ideas, they decided it was time to seek professional help. So they took their two sons to a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist claimed to have the cure for this family dilemma. He took the optimist and put him in a room filled with horse manure and a pitchfork. Figuring this would cure the boy’s over-joyful spirit, the doctor told him to dig. Then he left the boy alone. He took the pessimist into a room filled with new toys and candy. He was free to play with it all. “That should cure him of his dark outlook on life,” exclaimed the psychiatrist. “We’ll come back in a few hours and see.”
When the doctor and parents returned to the room full of toys and candy, they were shocked to see the little boy sobbing. “I might hurt myself if I play with these toys,” he cried, “and the candy might give me a tummy-ache.” All the wonderful things around him hadn’t snapped him out of his pessimistic attitude.
“Well, surely your other boy will be cured,” claimed the psychiatrist, trying to sound confident. Peering into the second room, the adults were astounded to see the optimist pitching manure in a fury. The boy’s mom tried to get him to slow down, but he was so busy that he only paused to say, “With all this manure, there must be a pony in here somewhere!”
You’ve got to admire positive thinking; and if you don’t have it, you’ve got to get some. Negative thinking won’t get you anywhere in life. Thinking positively draws out potential-in you and in the people around you. But positive thinking can’t produce something that doesn’t already exist. Positive thinking is only an advantage when you focus on what is true and positive according to God’s Word.
And the problem with negative thinking (besides the fact that it makes you a crab) is how it keeps you from ever having a healthy self-image. It blocks out all the good things God says about you. But as you believe God’s Word and what God says about your being his special child, you will discover gifts God has prepared for you far bigger than finding a pony.
REFLECT: Do you find yourself thinking negatively and pessimistically about your life? Make a list of positive things to think about from Philippians 4:8
PRAY: Ask God to give you a positive outlook on life based on his Word. Start praying about it today.
