COLUMN: Stilwell Church of Christ - Pathways

Thoreau spoke of how to produce a pathway on the earth and compared that to a pathway in the mind. If we want to make a path in the ground, one single step will not accomplish that. We must travel that way often and consistently. Eventually our footsteps will make a path. The same is true with our mental pathways. One thought will not make a lasting impression. Thoreau said, “To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Philippians 4:8 revealed that truth many hundreds of years before Thoreau. If we want the peace which God provides through Christ, and if we want that peace to guard our minds from the assault of the world, we must let our minds make the right pathway. 

Verse 8 says “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” 

Psalm 119:59 has a similar practical thought, “I considered my ways, and turned my feet to thy testimonies.”

Our actions reflect our thought patterns. When our minds dwell on the pure and excellent, our behavior tends to follow that pathway. As Romans 8:6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”