BS’D
Today’s daily dose of emuna is dedicated to the refuah shleimah of Moshe Shlomo ben Surah Tobah who was hit by a car in Manhattan and is in critical condition with brain trauma. May Hashem send him a complete healing among all of Klal Yisrael who are sick and suffering b’karov, b’rachamim, Amen.
Emuna thinking raises a big question, “How can we control our thoughts which seem to be uncontrollable?”
Chazal teach that one effective method is to carefully scrutinize the words we speak. Due to the fact that speech is a revelation of what we think, by virtue of watching what we say, we essentially channel our thoughts as well. For example a mechanical response of “life is so hard” when asked “how are you”, must have been preceded by a constant flow of thoughts of how ‘I can’t take it anymore.’ However by consistently responding with words like, “It’s not easy but I know Hashem is helping me every step of the way,” we imprint emuna into our psyche and shift the way we think.
It is crucial to understand that thought, speech and action are three facets of the same component. If we allow ourselves to think negatively under the assumption that ‘no one will ever know’ we are simply deceiving ourselves. Eventually these thoughts will spill into the words we say and actions we take and will no longer remain secret. Therefore a harmless negative thought such as, ‘This child is so annoying’ isn’t really harmless. We eventually will say something and act on this thought.
Therefore based on Chazal’s teaching above, when such a thought comes forth we can use our speech to chase it off with words like, ‘Hashem I see only You. Help me be patient.’ We can speak them softly to ourselves but the words must be spoken to change the thought. The impact of these words echo deep within us and in time radiates to our surroundings.
