We have been talking about how our thoughts effect our lives. We have seen how they affect our feelings/emotions and our words. We are beginning to see how they can control every part of our being for better or for worse. Today I want to talk about how they affect our behavior/actions. We have to think right if we are going to act right. We have to think good if we are going to be good. We have to think successful if we are going to be successful. If we are going to be kind and loving to others than we have to think kind and loving thoughts towards them.

The best way that I know to explain this point is to use a personal experience to explain how our thoughts determine our actions/behavior. When I was about 12 years old I was told that I was fat, stupid, and would never amount to anything. That I would fail at everything in life and I would never be loved. Those horrible words played over and over in my mind, day after day, for a long time. Because I replayed those words in my head over and over, I began to take them as truth, and that I was those things that were said to me. I began to believe that I was fat, stupid, and would never amount to anything. I believed that I would fail at everything I tried to accomplish in life and that no one would ever love me. Well because I felt like I was stupid, I would not try to learn in school. Because I felt like I would never amount to anything, I never expected anything good to come of me. Because I felt like I would always fail, I never tried anything. Because I felt like no one would ever love me, I became unlovable and I allowed people to treat me bad.

Then I had gotten to the point that I was always thinking that I was nothing but a screw up and that I could not ever do anything right. That caused me to act bad in all kind of ways. Because I had played those wrong thoughts about myself in my head over and over, I believed that I was those things, therefore that is the way that I acted. I did not believe that I could do or be any better than what I was, at that moment. I wanted better for myself and my life but no matter how bad I wanted it, I could not seem to make any positive changes (that would last).

Proverbs 23:7 says that for as a man thinks in His heart, so is he. So what ever we think is what we will be or become. In order for us to be able to do or be anything we have to believe that we are capable of doing or being it. And we can not believe it if our thoughts are saying something different. for example, say you were at the pool and your friend says, “lets dive in and swim across the pool.” You have taken swimming lessons but it has been awhile since you have been in the pool. You know that you were taught how to swim but your mind is telling you that it has been a long time since you have swam and you might not remember how to. As you stand there and look at the 12ft of water in front of you, those thoughts continue to run through your mind. “What if you jump in and you have forgot how to swim” plays over and over in your mind. Before you know it you are telling your friend that you can’t swim, all because your thoughts have stole the confidence that you had in knowing how to swim. Because you did not believe with all your might that you can swim, your thoughts have made you lie to yourself and stopped you from doing something that you could do.

If we are going to be able to do or be anything, we have to first believe that we can do or be it. And we believe it by thinking that we can do or be it. I will never be able to stop doing something if I have thoughts of not being able to stop it. I will never overcome anything if I think that I can not overcome it. I will never accomplish a thing if I have thoughts of “I can’t” or “I won’t”. I will be lazy if I think of how lazy I am. Even if I can do something but I think that I can’t, I won’t be able to do it because I do not think that I can.

We have to have right thinking if we are going to have right actions and behaviors. Do not think for a moment that you will be able to change anything at all, before you first change the way that you think about it. Once we get our thoughts going in the right direction we will be able to get our actions and behaviors to follow. We will be more likely to accomplish something that seems impossible for us to accomplish simply by changing our thoughts to thoughts of encouragement and positive reinforcement. By thinking that we can do a thing over and over again, we build up confidence in ourselves and are more likely to be successful at it. Use your thoughts to aide good behaviors and right actions. Think about the power that you have inside of you and the gifts that you have. Think about all the possibilities that you have. Think good thoughts.