One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts – just mere thoughts – are as powerful as electric batteries – as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live.

– The Secret Garden

Another one of my favorite stories growing up was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. In case you haven’t read it, the brief synopsis is that Mary is orphaned and sent Lord Craven’s estate (her uncle). She is a very angry, disagreeable little girl, and no one likes her and she doesn’t like anyone. When disobeying the housekeeper’s rules, she discovers a boy in the manor, who turns out is her cousin. Her cousin, Colin, doesn’t walk, and has constantly been told he is too sickly and is going to die and therefore remains an invalid. His father is often traveling, not wanting to be around his son, which doesn’t help Colin’s state. Mary discovers a secret garden, walled up and locked away from the world. It seems dead. Mary befriends Dickon, who is a brother of one of Lord Craven’s servants.

Dickon tells her the garden is not dead. It just needs time, care, and spring to bring forth flowers and beauty. 

It’s a very good story, which I didn’t appreciate in its entirety until I got older. The garden is just an allegory for the growth Mary and Colin go through in the book. Mary hates everyone and everything, for no particular reason either. She’s just a disagreeable child. But the Secret Garden teaches her to start caring for things, which leads to her caring for people, Dickon and her cousin. 

Colin learns that even though everyone told him he was just so sickly he couldn’t do anything didn’t even make those statements true. It turns out he can walk, and he was not sickly. He had just been led to believe he was, and he would lie in bed wallowing in those thoughts, which only made them come true. 

That leads to the two quotes in this article. 

When a discouraging, disagreeable thought about something pops into our heads, do we sit and ruminate on it? Or do we, instead, push it out and replace it with an agreeable courageous one?

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

– Phillippians 4:8

In the quote at the beginning, Francis writes that people have recently discovered that thoughts can be as good for you as sunlight or as deadly as poison. But that’s already been mentioned in the Bible! God doesn’t want us ruminating on discouraging thoughts. 

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”

– Ephesians 3:20

It’s definitely a hard thing to do, and something I struggle with, but the next time that you get discouraged or anxious, try to push that thought away and replace it with an agreeable determinedly courageous one.

Much more surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.

– The Secret Garden

Feel free to leave any questions/comments below, or you can reach me here!

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All scripture taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.