Test Your Thoughts!

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:8-9

 

The thoughts you keep in a loop determine the direction of your life. — Steven Furtick

We have a lot of thoughts every day. In fact, many experts believe we think somewhere between 60,000 and 80,000 thoughts per day. That averages out to 2,500 to 3,300 per hour. Remarkable, isn’t it?

It would be great if our thoughts were all good. But many of them are negative and toxic. The good news is that we have a guide to help us test our thoughts. Philippians 4:8 is a great test as to whether we should think about something. The verse tells us to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Consider each word listed below.

True
One of the most important things to consider about our thoughts is, “Are they true?” Too often our thoughts are just not true. We need to focus on what is authentic, real, and lines up with God’s Word.

Noble
Because we are children of God, we’re in the highest of ranks! Our thoughts should be royal and regal. Not in an arrogant way but in not allowing ourselves to think in an unkind or repulsive manner.

Right
So many people want to be right—to be the one who is never wrong. But often, we don’t allow that desire for being right to permeate our thoughts. Thinking right thoughts means allowing accuracy and appropriateness to guide us.

Pure
To be pure in heart and thought is not as difficult as it seems. It’s simply choosing to think on ethical, good, upright, and honest things.

Lovely
This is a word that isn’t used much, but it should be. To think lovely thoughts means to see the beautiful and stunning in life and allow our minds to think upon those things.

Admirable
To be admired is something most people want. But do we want admirable thoughts? Thoughts that are credible and distinguished and allow us to live in such a way that is commendable.

Excellent
The best of the best is what excellent is. When our thoughts are excellent, they are superb, exceptional, and fabulous. Excellent thoughts lead us to live excellent lives.
Worthy of praise 

What thoughts are worthy of praise?
Thoughts about God. His ways, His plans, and His creation, to name a few. It’s safe to say that when our thoughts are on Him, that’s a good thing.

We can test our thoughts every day. As we do this, eventually we won’t have to test many of our thoughts because we will already know if they meet up to the standards in Philippians 4:8.

We will never be able to adjust every negative thought that approaches our awareness, but we can certainly try to free our minds from toxic thinking…one thought at a time.

Lord I come to you today to pray for help, help with knowing the thoughts we have and choosing which ones are really godly.

Prayer

God we thank you for all the thoughts that we have every day! we pray that you would help us to take control of those thoughts and not allow them to run our lives, but in-fact help us to control our thoughts. we know that not all of our thoughts will be great, or even good so help please help us to know when they are not righteous. God we pray that you would help us follow the guidance you provide in every scripture in the bible. today help us to truly in our hearts follow Philippians 4:8. Thank you for everything you do for us every day.

Amen

Will you Pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation Terese for quick and proper healing from her surgery  Kurt and Melissa, For continued strength through the adoption process  Red, for strength through harder times
Stephen and Hope, for continued health throughout their pregnancy  Ray for his son, continued healing  Chloe for continued support and encouragement. All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel  For all military personal serving our country and their families Those in Leadership positions throughout the world.

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer