MIND MANAGEMENT

There are a variety of management courses that universities and schools offer today. But what about mind management? Is it for everyone, schooled and unschooled? Do you hire people to manage your mind like your business or who does the management of your mind? Is it scriptural as a Christian to manage our minds? Let's explore the scriptures.

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance, and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23 (AMP). Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. Proverbs 4:23(NLT).

In the olden days, when kings usually led their countries to war, there was a popular and powerful king who felt there was no need to go to a particular war since he had highly trained and skillful military generals. He stayed in his palace, relaxed, listening to the battle report from the news channel.

Then something happened, he went to the rooftop of his palace where he could view the whole city, there he saw a very elegant, tantalising and beautiful married lady bathing. The woman's husband was at the battlefield fighting for the king and country that was not his own. What a loyal army general!

The King thought of tasting the woman's pudding. What he saw with his eyes, the mind processed it, and an action was taken. The pudding of the woman, what a tasty evening meal! A lion does eat a fresh meal, you imagine right. Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!" Proverbs 9:17. By the executive order of the king, the order couldn't be rejected but executed and submitted to. Eventually, the king started another battle at home, despite not being on the physical battlefield. He tasted the fruit juice, with a burger in the land of that married woman, which was full of milk and honey, and the land produced a big harvest. After all, people usually pray that they should eat the fruit of their labour.

But the aftermath of the King's action has put his family in trouble to this day. That's why this King gave his Son, the Prince who will replace him, wise counsel to guard his heart and mind above everything. There you could see, mind management is being taught and it is for everyone. Did the Prince apply his father's counsel? This is a thought for another day. But from this story, what are the lessons or insights for us today?

Mind management is the way you control your thoughts and actions, feelings and affections with the Grace and dunamis of the Holy Spirit given to you in order to have and live a healthy, prosperous and progressive life, fulfilling personal dreams and visions for life. It is a way of eliminating negative thoughts and energies from your mind by sieving your thoughts, responses and reactions to people, situations and environment. It is an act of developing healthy and positive energies within your mind to response to life's activities. Proverbs says "Guard your heart, protect it with all diligence above any treasure you have, because issues of life and death proceed from it". 

First, we should all know that everywhere is a battlefield. Business places, offices, churches or worship centres, schools, homes, markets, villages or cities, toilets, or club centres, hotels or hospitals, UK, US, Canada, Lesotho, Libya, Afghanistan or Nigeria, public or private places. Something, one day, will challenge your integrity, skills, faith, patience, wisdom, peace and so on, including your finances or money matters.

Mind management is highly important for everyone now, as technology is improving and human existential challenges are increasing in diverse dimensions. Every human concern, need or want poses a battle to our mind to win or lose. Some of these human concerns are financial or money matters, Child, sexual or marital matters, entrepreneurship, academic or professional issues, wealth and health matters.

It is your responsibility to manage all information you allow into your thinking faculty. Your memory has the power to store information more than any computer. It has long-term and short-term memory. Your mind or thoughts affect everything you do.

The way you see things determines what attracts you or what you're attracted to and what repels you. The height you will get to in life also has to do with your life. Your financial peace or rest is a function of the information you put in your mind.

Your perception of your income, wife, husband, children, friend, boss, enemies, and competitor will affect your actions and reactions towards them. It's not every information that is edifying and healthy for your children. This does not mean you should not be conscious of your environment.

Your mind and your thought life are invisible to people but visible to God, and they affect your future. God, the Devil and the world are interested in your thought life. The sickness or health of the mind cannot be healed or repaired by medical doctors, but by you and God. Psychologists can really help, but the responsibility to manage your mind belongs to you.

Imagine, many health issues come from the mind. Fear, stress, hypertension, lunacy, suicide, anorexia, rape, sexual disorder, abuse and vices, murder to mention a few, are all symptoms of an unhealthy mind. But evil words come from an evil heart and defile the person who says them. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. Matthew 15:18-19 (NLT)

Most importantly, daily reading of God's Word, praying, and filling your mind with edifying and positive content will assist you in renewing and managing your mind.  Parents, teachers and leaders can support people in managing their minds through positive training. It takes intentional diligence to protect and manage what you put in and out of your mind. You can learn, unlearn and relearn anything you will in life. Mind management is a personal responsibility of individuals, but it has to be consciously learned and developed. 

©Adewale Abiodun Oluwadare is a Pastor, Bible Teacher, Finance Expert and Writer. He lives happily with his wife and children in Lagos, Nigera.

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