Just like the food we take into our bodies, what we feed our mind produces results in a similar fashion. If we nourish ourselves daily with a steady diet of junk food, we suffer ill health (not so much in our youth, but eventually it catches up to everyone). Likewise, if we take into our minds a daily, steady diet of garbage on television, social media, music, literature, and entertainment, we shouldn’t be surprised if our moods, relationships, and spiritual growth suffer.
There’s nothing Earth shattering or new in my previous statement, and the title of this post, “Garbage In Garbage Out” is a term most of us growing up in the late 1980’s – early 1990’s learned in school when PC’s were first being introduced into classrooms. If we entered garbage info into the PC, it would output garbage. The knowledge that what you put into your body and mind will have consequences, good or bad, has been around since Adam & Eve.
So why am I bringing up what should be obvious to all of us? Because I forget or don’t think about what I feed my mind on a daily basis, and I believe I’m not alone. The consequences I’ve suffered from not feeding my mind properly have been far more severe than my physical consequences from decades of poor nutrition choices. The physical consequences include type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Mankind is incapable of changing the past, but our God given free will that allows us to make bad choices also allows us to adapt and learn from our mistakes, to make better choices going forward. A proper diet and excercise is helping me control my diabetes. Simple fix (in theory). My mental nourishment requires more discipline, time, effort, and awareness.
The first thing I feed my mind after running through my set of morning common practices, is to read a couple chapters of the New Testament (KJV) followed by prayer. Some people pray and then read the bible (like my wife). That’s the way it seems to work best for me. The point is, feeding my mind with God’s word is essential to setting my mindset for each day. It’s a re-calibration or reset to prepare me for the day, entering into the world and its influences, but with eternity with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ my focus. Every day I’m blessed to wake up in the morning, I know the world will be throwing challenges at me from every direction. Every day in this flesh my mind will be tempted to wander into darkness, so what else can I do besides put on the full “Armour of God”? Control what I listen to on the radio (both music and radio personalities), limit my social media (which is getting much easier to do), and use some discernment when choosing what I read and watch on television (if anything).
For most Christians reading this, everything I just stated should be common sense. But is it common practice? That’s where the discipline, time, and effort come into the picture. By writing this, I’m only trying to remind you (as I do myself) to be aware, daily, of what we feed our mind. Garbage In = Garbage Out.
Have a blessed and happy day… and thank you for reading!
Written by Wes “Rockwell” Anderson
