“When my mind focuses on that which is good, the integrating power of the soul calls to my will to choose it, and my body to live it.”

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 77). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Here we see the importance of focus and how it can make such a difference in our behavior and how we handle life.

John tells of an experiment with 450 students at UCLA. “Researchers divided them into two groups and asked one group to remember some trivial memory: ten books you had been assigned to read in high school. They asked the other group to try to remember the Ten Commandments. The students in the ten books memory group engaged in typical widespread cheating. The students in the Ten Commandments group did not cheat at all. Merely the act of trying to remember the Ten Commandments made them think, ‘I was made for something better.’ This despite the fact that not a single student in the Ten Commandments group was able to recall all of the commandments.”

Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.” And from this John says, “That doesn’t mean moral rules can transform a human being, but it does mean the soul was made to love and do the will of God.”

Focus, focus. “When my mind focuses on that which is good, the integrating power of the soul calls to my will to choose it, and my body to live it.”

So do you focus on that which is good?

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