On his Slow Train Coming album in 1978, Bob Dylan recorded “Gotta Change My Way of Thinking”… Here’s a sample of the lyrics:

Gonna change my way of thinking

Make myself a different set of rules

Gonna put my good foot forward

And stop being influenced by fools.

Changing our way of thinking is one part of the “expulsive power of a new affection.”

In his sermon from more than 150 years ago Thomas Chalmers wrote, “It is seldom that any of our tastes are made to disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through the instrumentality of reasoning. It may be done by excessive pampering, but it is almost never done by the mere force of mental determination. But what can not be thus destroyed, may be dispossessed-and one taste may be made to give way to another, and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection of the mind.”

What it would mean in our lives if we actually applied the message of Philippians 4:8.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.