The Way We Think - John Ortberg Quotes

"That is why it so ironic that in the most important area of life we often disregard one basic human resource with a nonchalance that is nothing less than astounding - the mind. What we feed everything else we possess is nothing compared with the importance of what we feed our minds." (John Ortberg)
"Whether we are filled with confidence or fear depends on the kind of thoughts that habitually occupy our minds." (John Ortberg)
"The way you think creates your attitudes; the way you think shapes your emotions; the way you think governs your behavior; the way you think deeply influences your immune system and vulnerability to illness. Everything about you flows out of the way you think." (John Ortberg)
"Over the long haul, good thinking - accurate perceptions, healthy emotions, wholesome desires, honorable intentions - cannot produce bad results; bad thinking cannot produce good results." (John Ortberg)
"Your mind will think most about what it is most exposed to. What repeatedly enters your mind occupies your mind, eventually shapes your mind, and will ultimately express itself in what you do and who you become."
"We are flooded with sexual images on television screens, computer terminals, magazine covers, and multiplex movie marquees. Sexually explicit images and e-mails are sent not just to teenagers, but to children who have virtually no chance to protect themselves from what they do not even know they are getting into - and then we profess to be shocked when promiscuity and sexual addiction levels go up and marital fidelity and stability go down."
"If enough teenage girls look at enough magazine covers featuring enough models who are paid outrageous sums of money to make themselves unnaturally thin and then interviewed and quoted as the experts on what makes life worth living, we will raise a generation of young women whose minds are constantly filled with such thoughts. You're not thin enough, not pretty enough, not desirable enough to men. Their feelings of self-esteem will plummet. Hope will die. And the behavioral consequences will skyrocket - and it shouldn't surprise anyone."
"The events you attend, the material you read (or don't), the music you hear, the images you watch, the conversations you hold, the daydreams you entertain - all are shaping your mind and, ultimately, your character and destiny. This is supremely true when it comes to hope."

"If you really want to become a certain kind of person - a hopeful person focused on Christ - you must begin to think thoughts that will produce those characteristics. . . . When we focus on Christ, these are the kinds of thoughts he will inspire you to think. Therefore you must put your mind in a place that will lead you to think hope-producing thoughts. You need to expose your mind to those resources, books, tapes, people, and conversations that will inline you toward confidence in God."