Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is
true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think
about such things.
This morning newscasters reported that people are up in arms
about a psychological experiment Facebook conducted in 2012 on 700 Facebook
members. By selecting mostly positive newsfeed
or mostly negative newsfeed they were able to determine how the slant of the
news affected their subjects. They
discovered that those who received mostly negative posts would respond with
negative posts of their own and vice versa for those who received mostly
positive posts. While I don’t approve of
this group manipulating our newsfeed, I do agree with the findings. It’s a no-brainer.
If we surround ourselves with positive people we will be
much happier than if we hang out with negative folk. The members of the church at Philippi were stressed
out like the other early churches trying to form a new religion among
unbelievers and persecutors. Paul writes to them from his prison cell,
encouraging them to stay positive as he is trying to stay positive. This week let’s try to conduct our own social
experiment. Let’s concentrate on thinking
positive, happy thoughts and see how it affects our mood and actions.
Joyful, joyful we adore Thee, O Lord. Help us to carry that joy throughout our
daily lives. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Happy Monday!
Paige
Paige