Watch Your Spirit
Take heed to your spirit. -- Mal. 2:15
One should watch the health of his spirit just as diligently as he watches the health of his body. Neglect the body, and soon it will become clogged up with poison and cease to function properly. Neglect the spirit, and you will suffer a corresponding result in your spiritual being.
You see a man who has become morose, morbid and peevish, or, perhaps, cold, hard and unrelenting. He was not always so. You remember him as he was in former days, when he was bright and cheerful, warmhearted, generous and responsive. You mark the change that has come over him, and you wonder what has happened to make him so different.
The trouble is that he has neglected the health of his spirit. Likely the change has come about gradually. He may be been thrown into an unhappy environment, or he may have suffered some unhappy experiences. But that is no excuse.
When the body is subjected to an unusual strain, one is apt to give all the more attention to the maintenance of its strength and efficiency. And likewise, when we find ourselves in an uncongenial environment, or being unusually tried by any sort of depressing or vexing circumstances, we need to be all the more on our guard to keep our spirit in a healthy condition and right attitude. The trouble with your man is that he neglected to do this. Instead of mastering his circumstances, he allowed them to master him.
Perhaps he didn't think, and has been unaware of the change that has been taking place in his mental attitude and disposition. Nevertheless, the change is so pronounced that he has become an amazement to his friends and associates.
We all need to take heed, lest something like this may happen to us. It is something that may happen to us very easily, and before we realize it. Right now, it would be well for each of us to check up on himself, and see whether he is keeping his mind and heart in a healthy state.
What about the disposition you were displaying today to those around you, in the office, in the shop, in the home? Take a look at yourself in the mirror. Do you see any changes in your facial expression? Better look out about that. If you want to keep that good disposition, better WATCH YOUR SPIRIT.