Filter- Clogged with Selfishness

A filter  can be defined as a porous device for removing impurities or solid particles from a liquid or gas passed through it. Or, basically a filter blocks impurities from passing or entering another object. It gives you the good and leaves the yuk behind.  I make jokes with my friends, sometimes, indicating that they have no filter when they speak.  A great deal of this has to do with personality styles... whether you are an introvert or extrovert, or your ability to process your thoughts before you say something. We all  have, undoubtedly, spoken words too quickly and wished we could retrieve them.  I suppose that is when the words "I'm sorry" are ever important.  But, what if everything we do revolves around us?

(Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Psalm 119:36)

When I make a decision about what groceries to buy or what to prepare for dinner...it often depends on what I want to eat or what sounds good to me. When I turn on the television...I put the channel on what I want to watch.  As I pay the bills, I decide where the money is spent. When the girls tell me what they want to do...the outcome is often determined by how I feel.  Do you see a common thread in these examples?  They are all centered on me.  Each one is filtered through my own need or desire.  Everything we think about, act on or verbalize to others goes through our mind and heart filter.  These are the values and morals you have been taught that you now adopt as your own or a lifestyle you have chosen to live.  For some people these ideas are a strict set of religious beliefs, others a relationship with the Heavenly Father that motivates them to bring Him glory by their life, and yet others a free spirit where anything that feels good is fair game.  There is a common thread in everyone.   No matter how our heart and mind has been influenced...we are selfish by nature...and our hearts and minds often get clogged by this impurity.  

The best remedy I can think of is routine cleaning....just like any furnace filter, coffee filter, oil filter, vacuum filter...all need cleaned and in some cases replaced.  Some stay clean longer than others.  This depends on what has to pass through it.  I think you get the picture don't you?  What you put in your mind must come out in some form or another.  In order to become more selfless...spend time filling your mind with good information.  Be a student of learning all the time.  The more you fill your mind with uplifting and encouraging words...the more you will pour them out to others.  It is definitely true...the more you know the more you grow.  I came across this list of "top acts of selfishness." I could think of a few more  things to add to the list, but these were thought provoking.  When I am focused on me and how others and life circumstances treat me...the more I live in a "want" or "lack of" mentality.  The opposite is also true...the more I focus on others and what my life can do for them...the more I live in a life of "more than enough" and "abundant mentality."  When my heart and mind filter is flushed clean...the purer my actions become. If you think your "filter" is clogged with selfishness...there is always time to clean it out or get a new one!