October 5, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Proverbs 16:3 Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.

Some time ago my wife was introduced to a web site that is supposed to help people with their thinking skills. She signed me up. Each day it sends a reminder to exercise your brain by signing in and playing these memory games. There are all sorts of little games they have, some are based on math, some on spelling, some on memory, and some on shapes; just different short games to stimulate the brain. The entire training session only takes about five minutes or so and it’s kind of fun. So, I’ve been training my mind every day.

Yesterday, I noticed on the web site’s homepage that there is a way to compare your brain to others your same age. I thought that would be neat, I want to see how much smarter I am than everyone else my age. After all, I hold advanced college degrees, right! So, I clicked on the tab, and my brain index came up with a ranking of 6.7%. I thought, yep, just as I thought my brain power is better than 93.3% of the others on this site.

Then I read a little further! My poor little brain was not in the top 6.7 percentile; it was in the bottom 6.7 percentile. 93.3% of the people my same age had brains superior to mine. For the first time in my life, I realized that perhaps I did deserve all those bad grades I received in school. It may be that my brain is inferior, and I just have thoughts of grandeur concerning my mental ability.

Last night I asked my wife if she ever looked at her brain ranking. You guessed it her brain is in the upper percentiles. Yep, I married up. I was depressed, despondent, discouraged, downhearted, disappointed, dejected, disgraced, discomforted, disheartened, disheveled, displeased, and downcast to be so deficient in my mental ability. (How can a 6.7% brain write a wonderful sentence like that?) 

So, I turned to the Bible and just like a cool drink of water to a parched tongue the Lord’s timing of today’s verse was perfect for me. As a child of God I do not depend on my ability mentally, my God in Heaven establishes my thoughts. Wonderful! His thoughts can be my thoughts; He gives me His thoughts based on His Word. I have hope! Even a man with a 6.7% brain can write thoughts that can help others, because first and foremost they are thoughts established by Him. I can relate to the Apostle Paul as he wrote that when he is weak then he is strong because of the Lord’s strength through him. Perhaps because I am mentally weak, I depend on Him making me mentally strong. Wow, what a thought! For all of you preachers who read this, if I am wrong, please don’t let me know, for I have finally found comfort in being mentally inferior.

May the Lord bless and be pleased with your thought life today.

Dr. William Howe