Richard L. Evans
The Spoken Word
19 October 1969

“I had a pleasant time with my mind”

There is a thoughtful line from Louisa May Alcott: “I had a pleasant time with my mind, for it was happy.” The mind, of course, can go anywhere, even when the body is infirm or confined. Consciously or subconsciously the mind is always in motion. And it is still true that as a man thinketh, so is he.

“If you keep your mind sufficiently open,” one observer said, “people will throw a lot of rubbish into it.” They will, and they do, if we let them. And it is for us to see that we select wholesome mental fare for ourselves in what we read and see and hear, and also concern ourselves with what is taught our children by any and all means by which impressions are made upon their minds—for what moves in our minds is the pattern of what will come to pass unless something prevents.

It is in the mind that music and poetry are first fashioned. It is in the mind that envy and evil are incubated, that crime is first committed, that morality and immorality are made. And in the mind beauty and good are born. In the mind our future is made, and we are responsible for the thoughts we think and for the purposes we pursue.

There is nothing we know of more marvelous than the human mind, except the infinite mind of God who gave it. And one cannot conceive of anyone’s using any drug or dope or mind-dulling substance that would impair the senses, or interfere with judgment or self-control, or in any way mar the mind of man—this great and sensitive instrument that God has given. If we are clean in mind, we are clean and happy in life. If we are evil in mind, we are not happy anywhere.

“Clean up your thought,” said Dr. Frank Crane. “Don’t have a waste-basket mind.” God give us the wisdom to respect our minds, and not clutter them with trash or trivia or unwholesome content of any kind—for the mind in large measure is where we live our lives. “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God.”

“I had a pleasant time with my mind, for it was happy.”