Soul Food Part 2: What You Feed Your Mind

A close friend of mine said something recently that stopped me cold.

He said that most people treat God like dots on the picture of their life. A little prayer here, a Sunday service there, a verse when things get hard. But he said it should be the opposite — God is not dots on our picture. God is the whole picture. And our lives are the dots on His.

I have not been able to stop thinking about that since he said it. Because the moment I heard it I knew it was true, and I knew that the way I managed my inputs — everything I let into my mind every single day — either reflected that truth or quietly contradicted it.

This is Part 2 of the Soul Food series. Part 1 was about the friendships that feed your soul. This one is about everything else you let in — and what it is quietly doing to you whether you realize it or not.

The Picture and the Dots

I want to start with something honest. I have spent a lot of my life consuming — podcasts, social media, music, content, information — without really asking what it was doing to my soul. I just consumed because it felt normal. Everyone does it. It fills the silence. It feels like relaxation.

But here is what I have learned: there is no such thing as a neutral input. Everything you let into your mind is either pointing you toward God or pulling you away from Him. There is no middle ground. The content you scroll through, the music you have on in the background, the podcasts filling your ears on the commute — all of it is sowing something into your soul whether you invited it to or not.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” — Romans 12:2 (ESV)

That word renewing is active. It is ongoing. It means the mind is either being renewed or it is drifting. It does not stay still.

The Bible First — Before Anything Else

I want to be upfront about where I am trying to root everything. Ephesians 4 talks about growing up in Christ and no longer being like little children tossed around by every human teaching — blown here and there by every wind of doctrine. I have felt that. I have been that. Consuming so much content from so many voices that I lost track of which one was actually true.

God gave us an entire book of His inspired words. His actual voice, preserved for us. And I was treating it like one source among many instead of the source that everything else gets measured against.

That has been a shift I am still working on. Making sure the Bible is not just part of my input diet but the foundation of it. The thing I go to first, before the podcast, before my scrolling, before anything else. When His Word is the lens, everything else gets filtered through something true.

What the Fruits Tell You

Here is the most honest thing I can tell you about inputs: you can measure what you are consuming by what is coming out of you.

I have noticed that when I am feeding God centered content — reading my Bible daily, even just a chapter on my phone, staying in prayer, keeping my inputs pointed toward the Lord — I have the fruits of the Spirit. I am happier. More gentle. Calmer. More willing to work hard and show up for the people around me. More patient with Maddy. More present. And more alive.

And when I drift — even just a few days without reading, a few days without prayer — I feel it immediately. I am quicker to anger. Less willing to help around the house. My tone gets worse. I snap more. I am louder and less careful with my words and my emotions.

Since coming back to the faith, I went three days without reading my Bible once and I noticed myself snapping at Maddy more, speaking with a worse tone, being less careful with how I expressed myself. It hurt her. It hurt me. It hurt our relationship. And the moment I brought it back to God and recentered — almost immediately things shifted. The fruit came back.

That is not a coincidence. That is cause and effect. What goes in comes out. Every time.

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” — Luke 6:45 (ESV)

Social Media — The Honest Truth

I want to be real about this one because I think a lot of people are in the same place I am.

Social media is designed by some of the most brilliant and well resourced people on the planet specifically to keep you on it as long as possible. PhD scientists whose entire job is to make sure you do not put the phone down. And it has worked on me. I am not going to pretend otherwise.

I do not struggle with it when I am with other people or when I am working. It is specifically when I am alone and looking for a way to relax that I reach for it without even thinking. That automatic reach — that is the addiction working exactly as designed.

What I have noticed is that even when I am consuming Christian content on social media, my scrolling itself is the problem. It is not just about what I am watching. It is what the act of mindless consumption does to my mind — it tunes my thinking without me realizing it. It shortens my attention span and trains me to be passive and restless at the same time. Neither of those things are aligned with the way God told us to live.

I have not perfected this. I am still working on it. But the awareness alone has changed something — I cannot scroll the same way I used to without feeling it now.

Music and the Battle I Am Still In

I will be transparent here — this is probably my most unresolved area.

I have years and years of secular music. Songs that are attached to memories, to moods, to parts of my life. And I have not found worship music that moves me the same way yet. That is just honest.

What I have done is draw a line. Anything that goes against God — or even walks that line — has come off my playlist. That has shortened the list significantly. I am not going to pretend that was easy or that the replacement has been seamless.

But I have felt the difference. There is something that happens when you have music in your ears that is pointing you toward the Lord versus music that is pulling you somewhere else entirely. The words get in. They shape the mood of your mind whether you are paying attention to them or not.

I am still figuring this one out. But I think the honest awareness of it is the beginning. And I trust that as I keep seeking, God will meet me there with music that actually moves me toward Him.

A Heart I Did Not Know Was Hardened

I want to end with something personal because I think it might be the most important thing in this post.

I have been walking seriously with the Lord for about eight months now. Re-baptized. In the Word daily. Surrendered in a way I had not been before. And for most of my life before that I genuinely believed I was just not an emotional person. That is just how I was wired. Stoic. Unbothered. And not a crier.

I was wrong.

Over the last six months — and especially these last few weeks — God has been healing my heart in ways I did not even know it needed healing. I cry now. At church. At happy videos. At moments of beauty I would have scrolled past before. I feel empathy in a way that is new and almost overwhelming sometimes. I love more fully than I ever have. It is so freeing I do not have words for it.

My heart was not stoic. It was hardened. Or injured. Maybe both. And I did not know it because I had never given God full access to it before.

What changed? The inputs changed. The Bible daily. Prayer. Worship. Community. Surrounding myself with people and content that points to the Lord. And removing what was quietly working against Him. It is an ongoing process — I have to stay rooted for it to keep happening. The moment I drift, the hardness starts to creep back.

But I have felt what a soft heart feels like now. And I am never going back.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” — Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV)

So What Are You Letting In?

I am not writing this to make you feel guilty about your Spotify playlist or your screen time. I am writing this because I spent years not connecting the dots between what I was consuming and who I was becoming. And once I saw it I could not unsee it.

God is not meant to be dots on the picture of your life. He is the whole picture. And every input you let in either reflects that or quietly contradicts it.

Take an honest inventory. What are you feeding your mind every day? What is it producing in you? What does the fruit look like?

If the fruit is not what you want — start with the roots. Go to the Word first. Let everything else be measured against that. And then watch what God does with a mind that is actually being renewed.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” — Philippians 4:8 (ESV)