Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
In Dr. Seuss’ book, Horton Hatches an Egg, we see Horton the Elephant wronged by everyone. He is ridiculed, imprisoned, and left responsible for what doesn’t belong to him. But Horton chooses his “thinks”. The sour kangaroo comments on Horton, “Someone is thinking different than us!” But no matter what, he doesn’t change his thinking. He continually chooses to be positive. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent.” In the end, Horton’s path, though unpleasant, leads him to happiness.
Has anyone ever done you wrong? Sure, they have. If it’s someone who has been in your life a while, they may have mistreated you for years. It may have been a spouse, a friend, a sister, a brother, a cousin, a parent, a child, or a co-worker, and the list could go on and on.
It’s easy to let your mind dwell on the past. I could sit around and tell you every way in which I feel I have been wronged and how unfair it is. But will it really change anything? During hard times I realized that if I let my mind become cluttered with negative thoughts, it only led to me being unhappy and angry. I would rather be happy.
Stones
Negative thoughts are like stones. A stone tossed into a lake causes a rippling effect. Your mind is much the same. It doesn’t just stop at the one thought, it brings wave after wave of negativity. Soon you are thinking about and remembering everything that person has done to hurt you. Does it make you feel better to recall those events?
No. We all get hurt. We all get wronged. It starts in preschool and continues our entire lives. But is it worth your happiness? Even if you are in the right and they are in the wrong, sometimes you just have to let it go. Did Jesus ever become upset? Yep, one day in the temple. But do you think after that day, he sat around time after time and thought about their actions and became angry again and again?
It’s like carrying around a basket full of stones. Each stone represents a negative thought you had about that person. The more bad thoughts, the heavier the basket becomes. Sometimes others contribute to your basket. They toss a new stone in with their opinions and comments. You will weigh yourself down. Soon you are dragging, mentally, physically, and socially from the load. It’s a load that we aren’t meant to carry.
God Knows
God knows exactly how much it hurts us. How can we live as the person God created us to be and follow the path he has planned for us? Friends, we are perhaps without even realizing, turning around and going in the opposite direction. In that other direction is Satan–waiting. He says, “Oh keep thinking that way, keep thinking your way farther and farther…because that allows me in to take over.” The most important thing to remember, and to remind ourselves, is that we must choose. The direction we take and which way we choose to think is up to us. When the negative thoughts first enter our minds, we must stop and immediately give those stones with their weight over to God. He wants to take them from us, but only if we allow!
“Oh the places you’ll go” …. because of the “thinks you can think.”