by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
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 in the area, you then realize that good is still here to be enjoyed.<\/p>\n
The media hits us with more and more crime cases, more burning and rioting, and pretty soon, we lose hope for our country. What we need is to offset the negative with a lot of good news, stories of good deeds, people who act nobly and heroically. Someone did the right thing; someone made someone else’s life happier and easier. Someone lifted someone’s spirit, someone restored hope in humanity. Someone cheered a heart. Someone stopped feeling sorry for themselves and got busy bearing the burdens of others, which brought a better focus and outlook. Someone stopped feeling worthless because they redirected their minds. They began shining as a beacon of light in a dark world, and soon the area was no longer dark.<\/p>\n
Think on these things (Philippians 4:4-8). Not just with a passing thought, but actually bombard your mind with these things until they transform your outlook and emotions, until you see things in a better light. Bombard your mind with good things. That is how the real heroes of faith handled their great challenges. Your mind adjusts to what you feed it. What are you constantly feeding your heart?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 in the area, you then…<\/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,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1281,495,97],"class_list":["post-89778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-good","tag-heart","tag-thoughts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59610,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/good-neighbors\/","url_meta":{"origin":89778,"position":0},"title":"Good Neighbors","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 12:16-21 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Putting off the old man \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we become a Christian, we are supposed to become a new person - II Corinthians 5:17 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are supposed to have the mind of Christ - Philippians 2:5 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That isn\u2019t so hard when everything goes well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37250,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-christian-and-social-media\/","url_meta":{"origin":89778,"position":1},"title":"The Christian and Social Media","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Maxson \"Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding\" (Proverbs 17:27). Like it or not, social media is here to stay. While we shouldn't overreact to the dangers of this new media, we must not ignore them either.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96348,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/writing-and-face-to-face\/","url_meta":{"origin":89778,"position":2},"title":"Writing and Face-to-Face","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some are not writers, and that is understandable. They are gifted in a personal way, but not so much at expressing themselves in writing. Not all have the same gifts and talents, and that is certainly understandable. Paul believed in face-to-face teaching and in the power\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31284,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-sin-is-breaking-the-law-can-someone-sin-against-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":89778,"position":3},"title":"If sin is breaking the law, can someone sin against me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I know that sin is breaking God's law (I John 3:4) my question is, can someone sin against me? How am I to forgive someone? Answer: \"Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32645,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-need-someone-to-talk-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":89778,"position":4},"title":"I need someone to talk to","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I try very hard to open my heart to God, but since I moved to another country my heart turned to stone. I go to church but I feel like a hypocrite. When I am in church I start to think about the rent to pay and the things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33062,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-saw-someone-quote-psalms-374-to-justify-sexual-foreplay-what-does-the-passage-really-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":89778,"position":5},"title":"I saw someone quote Psalms 37:4 to justify sexual foreplay. What does the passage really say?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read about\u00a0foreplay\u00a0and agree, but I was on a singles site and saw: \"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart\" (Psalms 37:4). So what does this mean? Thanks and God bless you! Answer: \"Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89778","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=89778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}