MAN IN GOD'S CREATION

Lesson Nineteen
CARE OF THE MIND, FEELINGS, AND WILL (1)

Burden to Impart:

In this lesson we see how to take care of our mind and our feelings. The most important thing in taking care of our mind is to guard what gets into it. We should keep any.. bad words, conversations, pictures, T.V. shows, etc. from our sight and hearing. Then if will not get into our mind and will not contaminate our thoughts. We should get positive, healthy things into our mind, like God's Word, songs, and our school studies, we should take care of our feelings by loving what is good and right, our friends, family, parents, and God. We should hate the Devil and whatever is evil and harms others. We should be happy when we are blessed and see others blessed and the Lord's name honored. We should be sad when we see evil done to others, or if we cause others trouble or dishonor the Lord or our parents. In taking care of our feelings, it helps to talk to the Lord (to pray) and to talk to those who love us and care for us.

Memory Verse: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord..." (Psalm 19:14).

Facts to Teach:

  1. Care of the mind:
    1. Just as our body needs care in order to be healthy, feel good, and function normally, our soul and all of its parts need to be properly taken care of in order to be healthy, feel well, and function normally.
    2. Our mind is like a small computer, capable of storing thousands or possibly millions of thoughts. What is put into a computer is eventually what is shown on the screen or printed out. Whatever is put into our mind eventually becomes our thoughts. And once a thought is imprinted into our mind it is very hard, ff not impossble, to get it out.
    3. To take care of our mind we should guard what we allow to get into it. We should not allow trashy conversation, bad words, nasty talk, or bad pictures to get into our mind. Many programs and commercials on T.V. are filled with trash and garbage: violence, killing, robbing, stealing, fighting, unkind words, etc. If we watch these things on the T.V. our mind will get contaminated and corrupted. Eventually, we may speak the things we heard, or imitate the things we saw. What we listen to and watch influences how we think and feel.
    4. We should put the best thoughts, words, stories, and pictures into our minds. Then we will think in a healthy, happy, loving way. We should listen to the Bible being read to us by our parents. We should read good books and only look at good pictures. We should study ,the things suggested and taught to us by our parents, teachers at school, and children s meeting. We should think pleasant thoughts. Whenever bad thoughts come to our mind we should chase them away. Concerning bad thoughts coming into our minds Martin Luther said, "You can't stop the birds from flying over your head, but you don't have to allow them to build a nest on it."
  2. Taking care of our feelings-
    1. If we learn to take care of our thoughts we have already won most of the battle concerning taking care of our feelings. Our thoughts influence our feelings very much.
    2. Our feelings have their proper place. We need to know how we should rightly feel because many times our feelings get out of their proper place.
      1. Love: We should love God, our parents, our family, our neighbors, and friends We should even love those who mistreat us and we should pray for them. (Although we should love all people, we always practice safety rules with strangers.)
      2. Hate: We should hate the Devil who causes all evil. We should hate all evil doing, for evil always hurts other people.
      3. Fear: We should fear anything that seems unsafe or dangerous to ourselves or others.
      4. Trust: We should trust our parents, trust the brothers and sisters in the church, and those who are in authority over us.
      5. Sadness: We should be sad whenever something bad or harmful happens to others, whenever we cause others trouble or problems, whenever we sin or do wrong, whenever we see that the Lord Jesus is not honored, loved, and obeyed.
      6. Happiness: We should be happy when we see things done rightly and people treated fairly, when we are behaving as we should and are loving the Lord and those around us.
    3. Our feelings are able to change, to be comforted, and to be encouraged. It helps to talk to the Lord (to pray) when we are sad or troubled. It also helps to talk to those close to us who love us and care for us (like Morn or Dad). When we are happy (or even if we are sad) it is always good to sing to the Lord and call upon His name.