Thoughts Become Words Become Things

Yesteday, I had an interesting experience with our Epiphany Community at SC DJJ. This is a ministry in which we share the love of Jesus Christ with incarerated youth. A friend of ours presented a program on the power of our words. Before words are spoken, however, they are thoughts. So the question to ask is where do thoughts come from? We cannot experience them with any of our five senses. They are first recognized by our brain. As my 4 1/2 year-old grandson said the other day, "Nana, it's all about the brain." How true this is.

When we consider that God simply spoke and all of creation came to be, we can start to consider the power in thoughts and words. If we but look at recent history, we can see some amazing examples of how thoughts become words which set into motion the actions that produced powerful results. An example is President John F. Kennedy's speech describing his vision of a man on the moon before the end of the decade. As a result, others caught the vision, and we just celebrated the 40th anniversary of that feat.

Another example is Martin Luther King, Jr. The civil rights movement itself started as a thought which became words, which ignited the vision and determination of a nation to end segregation and foster equal rights for all people. This is powerful stuff resulting from thoughts. I mentioned some positive examples but there have been negative examples as well. One of the most horrible of course was the Holocaust. Angry, hate-filled thoughts resulted in the murder of millions of people.

Reflecting on how powerful our words can be should cause us to examine our thoughts before turning them into spoken words. Our thoughts come from the people we associate with, the books we read, and the movies we watch. With this in mind, we really need to take great care that we associate with people who we admire and who speak the truth. Also, we must fill our minds, from which our thougts emerge, with material that results in growth and abundance. Focusing on positive, loving ideas begets thoughts of speaking and acting in loving and positive ways.

There are plenty of negative words resulting in fear, anger, and isolation in the world today. Since I have freedom to control what I think and say, I choose to fill my mind with powerful, positive thougts. A powerful example of positive thoughts resulting in a powerful result occurred just this past week at a conference sponsored by our company, Liberty League International. Erik Wahl was a speaker there who paints as he speaks. As a result, he produced some lovely paintings. Three people were admiring the paintings and thinking how wonderful they would be to own. Then one had a thought about using them to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She shared the thought and a project took form. 2 days later, the paintings were auctioned with $179,034 being raised and donated to Make-a-Wish of Hawaii.

For a thought to become powerful, it must be shared and acted upon. Then miracles can happen. Let's all be grateful for thoughts, words, and the wisdom to share those that are beneficial. "A wise man's heart guides his mouth and makes his lips persuasive." Proverbs 16:23 Lets all celebrate our ability to impact the world in a powerfully abundant way by our thoughts and words.