![[Graphic of think before we act]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/think_before_we_act.jpg)
| Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; |
| —Romans 8:5-6 |
Do you ever copy what someone else is doing?
When we were children, if one of our friends ran a little ways and then jumped, did we run a little ways and jump, too? Or, maybe we saw someone make a funny face, so we decided to make a funny face, too?
As an adult, if one of our friends shows us his or her new high definition television, do we find ourselves beginning to think about buying a new TV? Or, maybe our friend shows us his or her new smartphone. Do we find ourselves checking on-line to see if it’s time for us to get a new smartphone, too?
On many occasions, whether we’re children, or adults, we see what someone else is doing and we decide to do the same thing.
Now sometimes, doing what someone else is doing is okay. For example, when we were children, if we saw our older brothers and sisters, or our mom and dad, washing their hands before they ate dinner and we decided to wash our hands, too—well, that was a good thing to do.
But sometimes, when we copy what other people do or say, we can get ourselves into trouble. If we see someone do something nasty or mean to another person, we might decide to be mean or nasty to that person, too. Or, if we hear someone share a bit of tasty gossip about someone we don’t like very much, we might decide to pass that tasty bit of gossip on to one of our friends.
Or, maybe we’re in a meeting and we hear someone say something that doesn’t seem quite right to us. Instead of questioning what we’re being told, we remain silent and just go along with the crowd. We might even tell ourselves that by remaining silent we are “preserving the peace.” Instead, by remaining silent—by doing what the others in the room are doing—we may well be helping to create chaos.
But, do you know what? God has given us a way to help keep us from copying other people when they do bad things, or inappropriate things, or questionable things, or even things that are borderline but that we suspect might be wrong. That’s right. God has given us a brain inside our head. And, He expects us to use that brain. He wants us to think before we act.
So, let’s say we hear someone talking about another person in a very rude and careless way. Now, at first—particularly when we don’t particularly like the other person—we may think that we should talk rudely and carelessly about that person, too. But, just before we open our mouths to say something rude, we think about it and decide that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
If we do that—stop and think about what we were going to do before we did it—we would be using the brain God gave us to help us decide what to do.
God loves us very much. He loves us so much that He wants us to use our brains to think about what we are going to do. He wants us to use our brains to think about what we are going to say. Instead of just doing or saying what we see someone else do or say, God wants us to think about it first. And, God has also given us the Holy Spirit to remind us to use our brains—to think before we act or speak. The Holy Spirit will nudge us to do the right thing, if we listen carefully to what He says to us.
