The Choice of ExcellenceSample

Think About Excellent Things

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” ‭‭Philippians ‭4:8‬ ‭NLT

Excellence is easy to measure in many areas. We can see it, touch it, hear it, and taste it. These are tangible. We can fine-tune our measure of excellence on things with comparisons and the opinions of others. But our thoughts are a different story. Our thoughts are hidden and cannot be evaluated by another person. Our thoughts are usually the seed for our actions and words. When our thoughts are not excellent, the actions and words that follow usually fall below any measure of excellence.

Paul left one final thought with the Philippians about the things they thought about. He told them their thoughts needed to be excellent. He goes so far as to define what an excellent thought should look like. 

Excellence in every area of life is multifaceted. It is rarely one dimensional. The same is true of our thoughts. Excellent thoughts are true, but they are also honorable and right and pure and admirable. Our thoughts have great power. Just as a seed can grow into a plant or a tree that produces fruit, so do the seeds of thought that we allow in our minds. Think excellent thoughts that will eventually bear excellent fruit.