{"id":88692,"date":"2025-07-16T09:17:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=88692"},"modified":"2025-07-16T09:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:17:18","slug":"think-on-these-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/think-on-these-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Think on These Things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t want to get in a pattern of negativity that slowly drowns your mind in depression. So, what can you do?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Turn off the negative input<\/strong> for a while. This can be the constant negative news on TV and social media, or it can be patterns of feeling sorry for yourself. Regardless of the negative pattern, you must redirect your thought pattern and nourish your mind and heart with positive things. Paul gave a list in Philippians 4. Think on these things.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stay busy thinking of constructive things<\/strong> you can do to feel a sense of accomplishment. Make a list of things you have wanted to do. Set that list in front of you and begin one project at a time, accomplishing something each day that you have wanted to do. It can be in the yard, in the house, or even away from the house, helping someone else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most importantly, start your day by reading the Bible, meditating, and praying. In prayer, make a list of things for which you are thankful. Thanksgiving is key to changing negative thinking. It is hard to truly be grateful and throw a pity party at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Cast out thoughts of criticism of others and ask yourself if you are really being better than the people of whom you are critical? Pray to grow in thanksgiving, love, and industriousness. Ask forgiveness for being too critical of others, for being ungrateful, and for wasting mental energy on so much negativity that it robs us of the joy we should have in Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking on these things and putting them into action will make a remarkable difference. Rejoice in the Lord always! (Philippians 4:4). That is a command! Give proper attention!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Terry Wane Benton You don&#8217;t want to get in a pattern of negativity that slowly drowns your mind in depression. So, what can you do? Turn off the negative input for a while. This can be the constant negative news on TV and social media, or it can be patterns of feeling sorry for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[634,397],"class_list":["post-88692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-attitude","tag-depression"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67342,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-give-us-a-pattern-to-follow\/","url_meta":{"origin":88692,"position":0},"title":"Does God Give Us a Pattern to Follow?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The total evidence of scripture is that God is a God of order and expects us to follow the pattern of sound words in everything we do (II Timothy 1:13; Colossians 3:17; ICorinthians 14:33ff). God's Patterns Noah had a pattern to follow in building the ark\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82518,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fill-it-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":88692,"position":1},"title":"Fill It Up","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton What do you do when your heart feels empty? Moping around is not the answer! You must find ways to fill your heart and time with things that bring satisfaction and accomplishment to your life. Notice the \"be filled\" passages in Ephesians. Be strengthened in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/fill-300x225.avif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40680,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/departing-from-the-pattern\/","url_meta":{"origin":88692,"position":2},"title":"Departing from the Pattern","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford The biblical plan for the New Testament church is simple. There are a few things we are supposed to do in our assemblies, a few more that we are supposed to do with our money, and that's it. The scope of the Biblical pattern is extremely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82974,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-divine-pattern\/","url_meta":{"origin":88692,"position":3},"title":"The Divine Pattern","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Homer Hailey The divine wisdom has provided a divine pattern in all his ways. The doctrine men obey is a \"form\" or pattern, a mold, such as metal, which is poured into which life is fashioned. (Romans 6:17.) This pattern of doctrine was from God by Christ, who did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86554,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/carrying-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":88692,"position":4},"title":"Carrying About\u2026.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton What mental and emotional baggage do we carry that weighs us down and makes our hearts heavy? Paul speaks of being persecuted, hard-pressed on every side, and perplexed, but these things were not what he \"carried about\" in his heart (II Corinthians 4:6-16). The way these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89778,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bombard-your-heart-with-good-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":88692,"position":5},"title":"Bombard Your Heart with Good Things","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton If you let social media bombard your mind with all this social, political, and racial tension, soon you feel like everything good about our country and our neighbors has gone. But when you notice the birds, nature, and your surrounding neighbors, and you hear children laughing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}