Once there were two brothers who were very close. They did everything together. They ate the same food, slept in the same room, went to the same school, and shared the same hobbies. Because they were close in age, they did many things together and often competed with one another. Sometimes their competition would lead to a fight. On one such day after the older brother had been particularly unkind to the younger, the younger brother straightened his shoulders, took a deep breath and said, with finality, “From now on, I am your older brother!” and he stormed off. The older brother didn't know what to say. He just looked fiercely back at his brother, his fists clenched.
No one but the brothers knew that the argument had taken place, but everyone who knew them saw the affects of that declaration. The younger brother, from that day on thought of himself as older and began to treat his brother as the younger one. He acted superior, he tried to be smarter, and he worked harder to make his supremacy complete. The older brother, on the other hand, thought he was inferior and started to act like he didn't care. He became casual in his work, but inwardly resentful of his brother.
As the years went by and the brothers grew older, the younger brother began to be successful in his work. He had always been the top of his class, and now in his job he was continually being given more management work, more promotions and more money. The older brother had trouble staying with any job. He was always looking for a quick way to solve his financial trouble. He was irresolute and unstable. When people met them they would always guess that the younger brother was older and would say so. No one would have guessed that the older brother was older.
Some people say, “You are what you eat.” But really, you are what you think. After all, when you eat pork you do not become a pig, but if you think you are a failure you will fail. If you think you are smart, you will do all that you can to BE smart. Sometimes people tell us what they think about us, but it is only when we believe it and think it ourselves that it can affect us.
This ability to think is what sets us apart from all other life on this planet. There have been people of every caliber and kind who have inhabited this orb. Each has been the product not of the food he eats, but of the thoughts he thinks.
I heard of a young man who worked in the military during World War II. He was assigned to help people in prison camps find their way back to their homes. During the course of his work, he came across a man who proved extremely helpful to him because he seemed to know the names of most of the people as well as where they were from. In working with him the young man thought that the man must have been a recent inmate to the prison because he was relatively healthy and had his wits about him, unlike many of the others who were in a stupor of starvation and hardly able to communicate. To his surprise, the man had been at the prison for years. Wanting to know more about him, the young man began to question some of the other inmates. As it turned out, the man was one who, through all the horror and privation that they were subjected to, had spent his time serving his fellow prisoners; sharing what little food he had, cheering any who were losing hope, and ministering to the needs of those who were sickly. He obviously thought that it would make a difference, and it did.
The power of thought is as yet not within the grasp of scientific discovery. But in my lifetime I have seen much of that power in action. We only act according to what we think. It is true that you can become a slave to your thoughts. A thought can plague you until you die. And on the other hand, a man can be whatever he thinks he can. With that in mind, perhaps we ought to take at least as much care in choosing what we think as we do in choosing what we eat.
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