No computer will ever be able to think God’s thought or know the heart of God or do His works. But the human brain–that mystery residing between our ears–has this capacity. Actually, it’s what the brain was created for–to have the mind of Christ. (Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Woman, p.67)

In this chapter, Hughes elaborates on a few scriptures that detail God’s desires when it comes to our minds. She says we need to be careful to discipline ourselves to refuse certain things, while being intentional about the feast we set before our minds. We can’t take in a bunch of junk and expect great thoughts to come out. What we put into our minds is the greatest factor in determining what comes out of them.

I can remember when this truth presented itself in my life. About five or six years ago, I was involved in a bible study on Thursday nights. At the time, I was a heavy t.v. drinker. I would rush home from the study so that I wouldn’t miss ER. While I was gone, Hubby would record the four shows that came on before ER and we would watch those after ER ended. After a few weeks of this, I realized my behavior was insane and that I had made myself a slave to NBC. My conversations were about what happened on those shows. “Did you see…?” “I can’t believe…!” My affections were in the wrong place. I began asking God to change my affections. So, it was revolutionary in my life when I stopped hurrying home for t.v. and recording t.v. shows that I missed. Then, I thought I would go further with this idea, and fast t.v. for one month. This worked well for me. After the month was over, I was completely free of the felt need to watch t.v.

Hubby, who says that the only reason he ever watched t.v. was because I wanted to, quit watching it so much as well. One year later, we realized we weren’t watching it enough to justify paying $65 a month for it, so we cancelled our cable subscription. That was four years ago. Any time we would have spent sitting in front of the tube, is now spent doing things with our family. It is nice to not hear, “Be quiet, we’re trying to watch this!”

This is important to mention because the primary way by which ideas are transferred from one generation to the next is by words, not pictures. God says so Himself in Deuteronomy in his command to parents to talk to their children about how great He is. The pictures and objects, the stones of remembrance, were for reminders to talk, not the teachers themselves. Hubby and I have had some great discussions with the kiddos and with each other. I know that our minds have been sharpened because of the conversations we have around our dinner table. We talk about God and read good books. We memorize scripture together, which brings me to Hughes’ next point: we must be intentional about what we put in our minds. Jesus told a parable about the man who cleaned out his house, but he left it empty, and demons more terrible than the first took up residence. We have to eliminate the garbage, but we can’t leave our minds empty. We must fill them with God’s word and the good things of life.

The hardest part of all of this is disciplining myself to do it and to make wise choices in everything. T.V. is not the only medium. I only mentioned t.v. because, for a time, it was my master and my mind was eaten up with its programming. There are wise choices to make in literature, music, conversation, Internet-use, etc. There are not any hard and fast rules for any of this. I suppose I could make some up, but then that would be legalism and not God-glorifying discipline.

Last year, I memorized Philippians and learned Paul’s recommendation:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8