A Conservative Baptist influenced female blogger posted her convictions about alcohol. A fellow Christian reader edited the post for fun. Every time "
drinking" was mentioned "
thinking" was substituted (there are variations of course, i.e. "use of the intellect" and "thinking for oneself"). Bottom line I thought it was brilliant and unique and unintentionally potent.
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I know I will step on a few toes with this post; well here's goes nothing! First I'll start by sharing my personal experience with using my own mind. Next, I'll move to what the Bible says about common sense and from there I will close with some personal observations regarding thinking and the use of the intellect.
Being the Conservative Baptist girl that I was raised to be, I did not touch common sense. But when I turned 21 all that changed. And soon I slowly became out of control where thinking was concerned. I was not walking with the Lord, and the further I drifted from the Lord, the more out of control my use of thinking for myself became. Not only was I not walking with the Lord, but my friends were not walking with the Lord either, and so I spiraled out the control. After a chain of very unwise decisions I finally came back to the Lord and figured out that I could not think on my own anymore! I realized that that there is an atmosphere surrounding thinking that is not conducive to the Christian life. Usually when thinking is present, there is a feeling of frivolity and carelessness that lends to carnality.
There are many occasions in the Bible in which the use of thinking for oneself is connected with bad decision making (which leads to debauchery). In the Bible, thinking is considered a negative state.
So, I know you are probably saying, "but Jesus used his brain". My response would be, Jesus was perfect! He had control over how much he thought and of course he was sinless, so he was able to think and not sin.
Also, I know some of you are saying, "I use common sense in front of my kids, because I want them to see that I can think in a responsible way." My husband and I take the view that we are teaching our children that they can have strong convictions about something and stand against it despite society's strong influence to contrary. Isn't it better to teach children how to stand up against something that is potentially destructive?
OK, now you are probably saying, "I can control my thoughts. I like to enjoy a nice intellectually stimulating conversation with my wife(or husband) at dinner, what's wrong with that?" This is were we get a little subjective. Yes, you may be able to "control" your thinking, but can you measure the point at which your judgement becomes impaired? Is it after one thought, one sentence, two questions? I would challenge you to consider the attitude that surrounds thinking for oneself and how the World views thinking. As I said earlier, there is often an atmosphere of frivolity that surrounds the use of the brain.
So, that's why I don't think. First, the Bible clearly shows that nothing good comes from intelligent thought. Next, I want to model in front of my kids the ability to stand strong against a potentially destructive use of my mind. And, since I can't measure at what point my judgement becomes impaired, I don't want to play with something that has control over me!
1 comment:
yoyr Mom was raised a conservative Baptist also.
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