Goodness Gracious: 14 Unfiltered Devotions for This Sometimes-Too-Serious LifeSample

Think Right, Talk Right, See Right

Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. PROVERBS 4:23 GNT

Have you ever assumed something and eventually realized you were way off? Yup, same here. I’ll always regret the time when I made fun of my friends for loving boba tea. To me, without ever trying it, I knew it was disgusting. “Have fun drinking your boobie tea,” I’d tell them. “Goodness gracious, those little balls on the bottom look like mini rabbit turds,” I joked. That is, until one brave day, I decided to try it—and oh my heavens, my life changed. After tasting its smoothie goodness with a side of tapioca fun-ness, I realized that my assumptions about boba tea were completely wrong. If I could apologize to a drink, I absolutely would. But I couldn’t, so I just apologized to my friends.

Because my thought process was off, it led to my words being off, which led to the way I perceived things to be off. Come to think of it, this happens to us quite a bit in life. When we think wrongly about something, we will speak wrongly about it, and the way we see it becomes very misaligned. This goes for our interactions with people, our circumstances, and even our relationship with God. Let’s break it down:

Think Right: We must guard our hearts, first, by thinking right. When our minds are renewed, we think more like Jesus, which prevents us from believing lies. Our character is, mainly, defined by our thoughts.

Talk Right: The things we speak are direct correlations to what is going on in our hearts. Whatever our hearts are dwelling on will eventually become vocalized. Because the human mind is fickle, it is a dangerous thing to mistake “speaking without thought” for “speaking the truth.” Therefore, examine your thoughts and your heart above all else before using your words in any situation.

See Right: When we think the way Jesus thinks and talk the way Jesus talks, we will see things the way Jesus sees. This causes healing instead of division and peace instead of turmoil. If your thoughts, words, and perceptions are steadfast, God will keep your life in perfect peace.

God, renew my mind, my words, and my perceptions today. I want my character to be aligned with Yours. Amen.