How can we cultivate a mindset like Jesus?

When I was a kid, I loved to plant things in the garden. At a very early age, my mom helped me know the difference between the plants I was trying to grow and the weeds that seemed to grow without any help from me. 

One day when I lost my temper and said some things I shouldn’t have, my mother said to me, “James, your thinking is like a garden. Every time you say something loving, you are planting beautiful flowers in your thinking. Every time you say something mean or angry, you are planting weeds in your thinking. 

“And that’s what other people will see in you. What do you want to plant in your thinking, flowers or weeds?”

Well, I wanted to plant beautiful flowers in my thinking.

I got the message and that simple little parable has come back to me many times over the years. And it took years for me to really learn this lesson, and I still have to work on it sometimes. 

This week's episode is about the spiritual cultivation of godlike thoughts in our hearts and minds. And we'll use some gardening metaphors from the Bible:

• The parable of the tares and the wheat (see Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
• The garden all grown over with nettles and weeds (see Proverbs 24:30, 31)
• Breaking up fallow ground (see Jeremiah 4:3)
• Fertilizing with rotted manure to make a fig tree bear fruit (see Luke 13:6-9)

What were some of the "spiritual plants" Jesus grew in his thinking? Here are just a few:

• Love for God, all mankind, and himself as the Son of God
• Forgiveness
• Mercy
• Gentleness
• Compassion, listening for God's direction
• Doing God's will instead of his own
• Being aware the kingdom of heaven is at hand
• And so many more

These are the spiritual seeds we need to plant in our thinking.

Because we have the mind of Christ, we have these same spiritual resources that Jesus did. 

We need to pray. We need our private time with God. We need to cultivate our relationship with the Father. Just as Jesus did. 

We discover that we can uproot any ungodlike thoughts from our hearts and minds, our mental gardens, just as Jesus di

Text me your questions or comments.

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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life.

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