Thought is the invisible brainwave that can be translated into distinctive human behavior or action. Even though thought is invisible to the human eye, there are some people who claim they can read another’s thought before that thought becomes action. When I was a young boy, I was sure that my mother had that capability. Thank goodness not all thoughts are converted to action. Probably the most pious among us have thoughts cross our minds that would excite the town gossip or may even make the devil blush.
There is an oft quoted Proverb, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”(Proverbs 23:7) I believe that proverb should probably be modified to read, “For as he thinketh most often in his heart so he is most likely to become.” I am grateful that I am not what I have sometimes thought. I suppose the clarifying verb here is “as he thinketh in his heart.” If “thinking in his heart” is different from thinking in one’s head. There are so many things attributed to a person’s heart, and yet the heart is not capable of thought. If the reference there is to a thought that has been wrapped in a great deal of love and emotion, then it is more likely to be a true statement.
The things we do are the things we previously thought about doing. Even though it may not be easy to read a man’s thoughts before his action, we may know what his thoughts had to have been after his action. Why? Because we know for a certainty that everything that has been done and will be done was preceded by thought.
Sometimes we say things that we wish we could take back because what we said may have hurt someone’s feelings or it may have caused grief and/or pain to another, even to ourselves. Once we realize the result of our words, we sometimes apologize by saying, “I’m sorry, I said that before I thought” or “I said that without thinking.” The apology may seem to help, but it is obviously not true because everything that is said was first a thought. The damage from what we say may not have been carefully weighed before it was said, but those words were first in our minds as a thought. James Allen wrote that “As the plant springs from, and could not be without the seed, so every act of man springs from the hidden seeds of thought and could not have appeared without them.”
Our emotional state is directly affected by our thoughts. Those fortunate enough to experience positive results that come about because of their positive thoughts will, as night follows day, have a positive self concept. Conversely, a person who habitually thinks negative thoughts becomes a victim of those thought patterns. Generally becoming one with low self esteem and low personal productivity. The power of thought is underestimated for bad thoughts cause our bodies to release chemicals that make us feel bad. Negative thought patterns also cause our thinking to be less effective. We generally do not give thinking a second thought, but based on the above, there are a lot of reasons to practice the art of positive thinking.
Fortunately, we are all different—different in respect to our interests and our capability to think academically about any subject. Our thought interests, primarily in our youth, will determine what academic or work fields we will pursue as adults. Thank goodness. If we all thought the same way and all had similar thought interests, we would not have the wonderfully diverse universe we live in.
Thought wave patterns all vary, as well as the energy generated by them. Some thoughts waves are much more powerful than are others. There is evidence, for an example (how accurate I’m not sure), that a person’s brain or thought waves during a sincere prayer will be many times more powerful than during lesser thought activities. (See Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 23 by Dr. Raymond Knoll).
Years ago, when I was a young man, I read the book The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. His premise, as I remember, was primarily that if you want to be good at a thing, you visualize it in your mind (a thought process), with you as the star in the vision, doing the thing you want to be good at. You do it mentally over and over in your mind until you are able to do it in reality. It would be hard for me to imagine a person becoming a successful professional (at anything) without ever thinking first of being in that position. It involves not only seeing oneself in that position but thinking of what has to be done to prepare oneself to be eligible for it. That is what this saying means: “Fake it til you make it.” You create your world with your thoughts. Oliver Wendell Holmes stated that “A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9) Many Christians hope that as they mature in righteous ways that their thoughts or way of thinking will more and more emulate the Savior’s as we are asked to follow Him. We are all capable of powerful and positive thoughts, and I believe the things we think of most often will, in fact, determine who we are or whom we will become. We can have a positive self concept and respect for all of God’s children if our thoughts are wrapped in love and a sensitivity to others. Why? Because those kind of thoughts are the “heart thoughts!” Henry David Thoreau once said that: “The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” May we all learn to compliment others in that way. James Allen aptly described it in this way: “The most powerful forces in the universe are the silent forces; and in accordance with the intensity of its power does a force become beneficent when rightly directed, and destructive when wrongly employed. This is common knowledge in regard to the mechanical forces, such as steam, electricity, etc, but few have yet learned to apply this knowledge to the realm of the mind, where the thought forces (most powerful of all) are continually being generated and sent forth as currents of salvation or destruction (from The Power of Thought by James Allen). While writing this article on thought, I came to firmly believe in the power of our thoughts. May God bless us all to properly bridle our thoughts, especially our thoughts of others sharing this beautiful planet. Because we should all realize just how powerful and how much influence for good or ill our thoughts can have.