What Do You Think?

A few years ago The Iron Lady came out in theaters.  The ever talented Meryl Streep was playing the role of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady; what a perfect combination.  My friends and I were the only individuals in that theater under the age of 40.  Apparently the youth of America do not want to see movies about old British ladies, which is a shame.  Margaret Thatcher is by far the most interesting and clever woman I have ever read about extensively on Wikipedia.  Of course much of the dialogue in the film is fabricated, but from what I understand it is true to form.  My favorite scene happens between Margaret Thatcher and her doctor when he asks his spirited, but aged and declining dementia patient how she feels.

“One of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.  Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.  Ask me what I am thinking.”

“What are you thinking Margaret?”

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that.  And I think I am fine.”

I appreciate her spunk, although regrettably that did not cure her dementia.  I also love that proverb.  It interests me for two reasons.  Firstly because it follows the principle of equivalence in the logical argument A=B and B=C therefore A=C.  The conclusion: What we think is what we become.  It interests me secondly because I disagree in its absoluteness.  It assumes that our thoughts always become our words, our words always become our actions, our actions always become our habits, and so forth.  That isn’t true, and if it isn’t true then the conclusion cannot be sound because the premises make incorrect assumptions.  Perhaps if we inserted “what we think, we may become,” we would have sufficient wiggle room.  Life is much less black and white than it is gray.

Recently it was a popular theme in one Sunday school lesson.  The conclusion applied to gospel topics: if we think of Christ and like Christ then we become like Christ.  Personally I don’t think it’s that simple.

I’m not sure I could tell you what it means to think like Christ, but I do know that the scriptures teach us He knows how we feel:

“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind…that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:10-11).

“He descended below all things” (D&C 88:6).

“And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer” (Mosiah 3:7).

“He suffered temptations but gave no heed unto them” (D&C 20:22)

“[He] was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

That last one is my favorite. Temptation is not the same as sinning.  If Christ only ever thought good things, I don’t see it being all that difficult to resist temptation.  But he “was in all points tempted like as we are.”  That means he knows what it’s like to be angry, embarrassed, hungry, tired, stressed, depressed, horny, apathetic, and beyond.   I'll bet he even knows what it's like to want to die.  I think that’s why he is so willing to take us as we are. He knows how hard it is.

So even though I love the Iron Lady’s proverb, I do not think what we think becomes who we are; I think what we do with our thoughts becomes who we are.  The trick is not in controlling thoughts, but in learning to direct them, as I imagine the Savior did; and as we are all learning to do.