Transforming Thoughts

In the late 60's some people in Virginia Beach had a weirdly brilliant idea. There was a huge landfill where garbage from all over the East Coast was piled into trenches. The idea was to take that wasted and disgusting land and turn it into a beautiful environmentally friendly park. In 1974, Mount Trashmore was unveiled and has become a landmark. If you're ever headed down to Virginia Beach, you can check it out from the interstate.

What the city of Va Beach did for that trash dump, God wants to do in our minds. God wants to take our wasted and negative thoughts and turn them into something beautiful.

Most of us have developed a bad habit of judging other people without knowing all the facts. Jesus plainly warns us: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." (Matthew 7:1 NIV ).

When we judge others, we put ourselves in God's place, taking the authority reserved only for him. We forget that other people are fighting their own inner battles and sometimes that conflict shows itself in irritating actions. But if our own behavior is imperfect, why do we expect perfection from others?
We can remove this kind of trashy thinking by practicing compassion and forgiveness. Only when we treat others the way Jesus treats us will we demonstrate the kind of love he wants us to have.
With his help, we can do this. We can make a little progress every day until we reach the point that we "do to others as you would have them to do to you." (Luke 6:31 NIV)

One glimpse of the cross is a stunning reminder of how precious we all are to Jesus. Make the commitment this week to allow God to create something beautiful with your thoughts.