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Proverbs 27:23 · World English Bible

Proverbs 27:23 Meaning Know Well the State of Your Flocks

Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds:

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What does Proverbs 27:23 mean?

A mind is asked to keep watch over its own thoughts as a shepherd watches the living things in his care. These are not sheep in a field but the beliefs a mind is tending, and they wander toward fear the moment attention sleeps.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 27:23 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A mind is asked to keep watch over its own thoughts as a shepherd watches the living things in his care. These are not sheep in a field but the beliefs a mind is tending, and they wander toward fear the moment attention sleeps. To know their state is to see honestly which teacher each thought is following, so that none drifts untended into attack or guilt.

This watchfulness is not anxious control but gentle care. A mind that looks well to what it is thinking can lead each thought quietly back to love before it learns to be afraid.

Flocks and herds: the thoughts and beliefs a mind is tending, the living contents of the mind that stray toward fear when left unwatched

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 27:23 today

  1. Once today, ask yourself what you have actually been thinking about for the last ten minutes. No fixing, just an honest look at where your mind went.
  2. Before you answer a text that annoyed you, name to yourself the story you have already built about the person who sent it. Then decide if you still want to send what you wrote.
  3. In traffic or a slow line, catch the first irritated thought early, while it is small. It is much easier to let go of at that size than twenty minutes later.

Which thought have you let wander untended the longest?

The same truth in other traditions

Buddhism · Satipatthana

Know a thought as a thought while it is happening, the way a gatekeeper knows who is coming in. Nothing is forced out; it is simply seen.

Stoicism · Epictetus

Guard your impressions as carefully as you guard your wallet. When one shows up, say: let me look at you before I believe you.

Tao Te Ching 16

Stay still and watch things rise and return. The watching is calm, not anxious, and that calm is the whole skill.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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