Post 20: Master Your Thoughts—The Journey to Emulating Christ

Mastering your thoughts through Christ allows divine light to replace fear, virtue to replace chaos, and prepares you to emulate the Savior in character and power.

The Power of Thoughts

Your thoughts are the seeds of your character. They shape your words, your actions, and ultimately your destiny. Fear and doubt act like weeds that choke the garden of the soul, spreading confusion and chaos. Faith and virtue, by contrast, are flowers that bloom with light and bring truth.

To master your thoughts is to cultivate this inner garden—inviting God’s light to guide every choice.

God’s thoughts are higher than ours, yet through the gift of the Holy Ghost, they can become ours. Joseph Smith taught that this divine gift knows more than all the world combined, and he declared his choice to associate himself with God. In choosing to think God’s thoughts, you align your mind with His will and invite His Spirit to refine you.

Steps to Mastering Your Thoughts

1. Gain Awareness
Mastering your thoughts begins with awareness. The mind, like an untamed horse, will wander if left unchecked. Observe where your thoughts go when they are at rest.

Jesus taught that to look with lust is to commit adultery in the heart. To subdue such thoughts, you must turn deliberately to God and partake of truth. Redirect worry to gratitude, self-criticism to compassion, and worldly desire to spiritual aspiration. When you turn your mind toward God, He fills it with light and lifts your understanding.

2. Let Virtue Garnish Your Thoughts
As your thoughts are refined, your mind becomes a sanctuary of light. Doctrine and Covenants 121:45 teaches that letting virtue garnish your thoughts unceasingly brings confidence before God.

Virtue is like sunlight nourishing a tree. Each pure thought strengthens the roots, preparing you to withstand storms and bear fruit for others. Worship includes action. Multiply what you are given—your thoughts, your talents, your gifts. Praise invites increase. Align your mind with God’s, and your thoughts will radiate truth and light.

The Eternal Significance of Mastering Your Thoughts

Your thoughts shape your eternal glory. They are recorded and determine your readiness for divine responsibility. Jacob testified that through faith in Christ, even nature obeys—trees, mountains, seas—yet he acknowledged that such power comes only by the grace of God and His condescension (Jacob 4:6–9).

Miracles begin in the mind aligned with God.

As your thoughts conform to His will, His light grows within you—strengthening, preparing, and guiding you. The thoughts you choose today shape the glory you inherit tomorrow.

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Originally published December 12, 2024.