Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Holding Every Thought Captive

It's a verse I learned as a child and have 'always' known:

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

While I was swimming the other day, I was meditating and praying as I usually do during my swims, and this verse came to me as I was praying about an issue that's been bothering me a lot lately. It occured to me that everything that comes out of my mouth starts out as a thought. So I have started 'holding the thoughts captive', like holding them up to the light and looking really hard at them before I allow them to go from my brain and out my mouth. What HUGE improvement this has made. Many, many times, when I hold the thought up to the light I get the answer to not release the thought into words. In other words, I keep my mouth shut. Many other times, when I hold the thought up to the light, I am given a different way or even just a different tone to use when I verbalise the thought. Sometimes, I am given something totally different to say than the original thought.

I think this must be what my Dad has done all of his life. He is a man of few words, but the words he says are always meaningful and wise. I know that James is his favorite book, and it talks about taming the tongue, so maybe that is another place where he draws strength.

In any case, it's working for me and I am grateful.

2 comments:

Michael said...

THANK YOU, I know how helpful this practice can be. I will try very hard to control my thoughts and actions.

I love you, I pray that I will be able to learn and put this into practice.

It pleases me to see you get out to the pool and be active.

m

Anonymous said...

Hi - Just read your "captive thought". Another favorite saying of your dad is: "It takes two to start a fuss"(if the second person says nothing in response to the first person's statement, there's no fuss) He is forever saying that to me. I'm going to surprise him one of these days and not say anything(I'll probably be in my grave though)I'm just a little to quick with my remarks, but it's usually a joval return remark, or I mean for it to be joval. I'll try harder to keep my thoughts captive, then HE might miss a brillant thought.