When A Trickle Becomes A Stream

When A Trickle Becomes A Stream by Sally I. Kennedy

I’d been pondering a situation for a while. It rolled round and round in my head. The more I thought about it, and all its possibilities and ramifications, the worse it seemed to get. A molehill was becoming a mountain, and all in my mind.

A trickle can do that. If it continues, it may turn into a stream, and then a brook, and then maybe a river. Before you know it, you’re dealing with an ocean of unchecked thoughts.

Has this ever happened to you? I’d like to say I got it all in hand and stopped those thoughts dead in their tracks, but it took awhile for me to recognize what was going on and then turn in another direction.

The reality is fear, in this form, has a sneaky way of getting to us. A classic by James Allen, As a Man Thinketh, has many great quotes; a few are: A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts. Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought. Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.

These are wise and true sayings. This, too, is wise and true: in a wrap-up to a cyclical letter to the church at Philippi, St Paul says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Phil 4:8)