Own Your Own Mind

The kids and I had an interesting conversation on the way to church this morning. It began about as soon as we left the driveway, and it was about thoughts and something I think of as mind real estate.

One of the children began talking about what some people were saying about them and to them.

Of course, I reiterated the position that Kris and I have as loving parents to teach them how to think and not to swallow everything that is said. We're constantly discussing news and community or school issues in order to help them learn that: 1) There are two sides to every story, and 2) Not everything is what it seems.

Then the conversation took a turn about who is allowed to tell them what to think. They quickly ruled out everyone except us, their parents.

Whoa! Stop right there!

I told them, no, Daddy and I can't tell them what to think. We guide, teach, train, and direct, but we cannot ever make them think anything. That's why teaching them how to think, instead of being gullible or a mindless robot, is critically important to us.

Nobody can ever tell you what to think unless you give them the right to that prime mind real estate. That can be from any form of media or the people in our lives.

I'll pause there, though, to make an exception for the Bible. I swallow it hook, line, and sinker because of my faith in its inerrancy. Because God is Truth, we can rely entirely on the Bible, his written word, as a guidepost, an anchor, a light in the dark.

God didn't have to warp and twist anything to make it relevant. It just is relevant. His Word doesn't change from the beginning of time through the end of the ages because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Guess what else doesn't change since the Garden of Eden? Human nature. With humanity in this world will always be a level of evil, some people thoroughly immersed in it, others blushing at the thought of telling a white lie, but evil is embedded in human nature.

Every crazy, new situation flashing across the news doesn't surprise God, which is why we can have complete faith in him.

Even though it might be argued that God, by rights as Creator, could force us to think one way or another, he doesn't work that way. He gave us free will and conscious thought to learn and grow in knowledge; to think about things; he doesn't make us think anything.

God tells us to take our thoughts captive for a reason.

Own your own mind. Don't give that away to anybody, or anything, else.

Note: Just to be clear, having rules in the house isn't the same as telling the kids what to think. There are rules to help them grow up to be decent, and that's part of our parental prerogative. We are now in a phase of parenting that is more and more a training of their minds in how to think objectively, so that's why this topic is on my mind.