Thinking Is Not an Option

For the Christian woman, thinking is not an option; it’s critically vital to her spiritual health!

Decisions, decisions.

They’re an everyday occurrence. From our choice of breakfast foods, to how to raise our children, to how to stretch our money, we face decisions requiring the conscious act of thinking.

All decisions have consequences, and those consequences affect more than just the decision maker. So I’m asking myself—and you—if we as Christian women are giving enough thought to the decisions we make—thought to what we wear, what we say and how we act.

Our decisions result in actions. And our actions define who and what we are.

Think responsibly

As professing Christian women, claiming to imitate Jesus Christ, our thinking process should reflect Him. Responsible thinking should consciously and demonstrably reflect Him in us, not our closely held personal opinions, our emotional reactions or our off-the-cuff-and-sometimes-empty comments.

Considering this, I’m thinking it’s vital to really think about a given situation in light of the Bible before reacting to or commenting on it.

One way to describe careful thought is critical thinking. The behavioral discipline called “critical thinking” continues to develop through research and practice. In this context, critical does not mean negative—as in criticism—but instead implies the sense of being relevant or important to the issue under consideration. Loosely defined, critical thinking is the art of thinking about anything, specifically using the tools of analysis and assessment.

Sound like too much work with an already heaped plate of commitments, schedules, favors, service and that ever-elusive “time for self”?

Don’t have time for this?

We don’t have time not to think.

Taking our Christianity seriously prods us to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

How can we do this “thinking” work to achieve these goals:

• So that we can have the mind of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5)?
• So that it is possible for God to work in us “both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13)?
• So that it’s reflected in the sum of our decisions?
• So we are defined as Christian women, friends, wives and mothers?

Maybe it’s helpful to ask, “How do I think about this situation?”

Critical thinking connects the dots

Remember the connect-the-dot activity sheets we had as little kids? Our pencils traced imaginary lines from number to number until—“magically”—a recognizable image appeared. How we’d squeal when the picture became clear! Each new connect-the-dot picture had a predetermined picture—a standard—from which we drew, literally.

Can the simple connect-the-dot analogy really help us in understanding the Christian woman’s process of critical thinking?

The Christian standard

One resource explains, “Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.”

Critical thinkers hope to improve themselves and use standards for their improvement. For example, a woman hoping to improve her knowledge of art, music, literature or mathematics may follow well-researched academic standards and seek out mentors, working to find ways to expand her horizons. She’ll analyze, assess and practice.

A Christian woman accepts the flaws and limitations of her internal standard for decision making. She ponders this powerful statement from the prophet Jeremiah. “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. O LORD, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing” (Jeremiah 10:23).

The standard for Christian thinking—germane to any issue under consideration—can’t be found within.

It comes from the One we claim to imitate. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

The standard for a Christian woman’s critical thinking process is every word of God. Jesus Christ is “the Word” (John 1:1), and He recorded His thinking for us in the Bible. How does the Christian woman use Christ’s standards to improve her thinking?

• She connects the dots of His overall picture to make godly self-directed decisions.
• She connects the dots to have her Savior’s mind to make self-disciplined decisions.
• She connects the dots of God’s love and mercy to make self-monitoring decisions.
• She connects the dots of God’s righteous justice to make self-corrective decisions.

A Christian woman’s thought process is critically important. Consciously attuned to knowing she is exposed by her choices and defined by her decisions, she casts “down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, emphasis added).

Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ?

I’m thinking it’s critical.

What (and how) do you think?

Janel Johnson continues using “connect-the-dots” activity books with her grandchildren and her elementary school students and still loves it when the big picture becomes clearer.

For more about godly thinking and having the mind of Christ, see:

• How Does Jesus Christ Live in Us?
• What Is Meditation? How Does One Meditate?
• What Is the Mind-Set of the Spirit?