What we Think, we Become.

Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions.  Watch your actions for they become habits.  Watch your habits for they become your character.  And watch your character for it becomes your destiny.  What we think, we become." - Margaret Thatcher's Father

“Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny.”- Mahatma Gandhi

Proverbs 4:23, ESV Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
There is quite a bit of wisdom contained in the above quotes.  Much more wisdom than I will ever have, but I can borrow wisdom from others just fine!  =) 

I think one of the reasons that I can remain so focused is that I have developed the ability to see the connection between the first and last sentences of both of those long quotes.  Your thoughts become your destiny.  You BECOME your thoughts.

You see, when we develop certain habits, certain routines, and practice them over time, the result is an accumulation of that habit, which started as a thought.

Are you, am I, reigning in our thoughts?  Are we practicing discipline in our MINDS?  Or are we watching food network, pinning ummy-nummy recipes on Pinterest, browsing the candy aisle at Walmart "just for fun", buying our Halloween candy 4 weeks in advance knowing in the back of our minds that we'll probably get into it ourselves this week?

Honesty with ourselves, guarding our minds, guarding our thoughts, guarding our hearts, how many of us are really doing this?

When I began to really take a look at this in my own life, I was confronted with some attitudes and behaviors that, frankly, I didn't want to give up.  But then I began to see the connection between what I was spending my time thinking about, and what I was DOING.  Then what I was DOING on a regular basis became my HABITS and ROUTINES.  And as a morbidly obese 40 year old woman walking with a cane and needing a seatbelt extender on the airplane, getting stuck in the turnstiles at Disneyworld and having to be let through the stroller gate....with no stroller....um yeah, it is safe to say that my habits of disease were KILLING me slowly, and sometimes not so slowly if I'm 100% honest and if I remember the chest pains I was beginning to experience but was in absolute denial over.  The huffing and puffing and getting out of breath walking in with the groceries from my car....and I had no stairs.

Yes.  I took a good look at my thoughts.  And my heart.  And the absolute concrete connection between those and my state of health stared back at me from the mirror every day when I weighed 272.  Which is why I had stopped intentionally looking in to mirrors.

The stark contrast between my state of mind THEN, what I chose to focus on THEN as opposed to my state of mind NOW, and what I CHOOSE to focus on and think about now is as clear to me as the contrast between my before and after picture.

Immense.  Stunning.  Unbelievable. 

And it is because I intentionally began to reign in my thought life, reign in my heart, and I began to incorporate habits of HEALTH into my life. 

It doesn't happen by accident.  If I can impart a word of experience here, from someone who lost and gained 140 pounds, then lost it again and am keeping it off now, it is to MEMORIZE the quotes and scripture above.  They are SO true.  Borrow my borrowed wisdom.  Don't make my mistakes.  Guard your heart.  Guard your mind.  Guard your thoughts. 

Rinse and Repeat!