Live as a thermostat, not a thermometer

September 14, 2020 | 20 comments

Thermometers go up or down according to the temperature of the room around them.

Thermostats set the temperature of the room around them.

As you go about your daily business, it is in your best interest to not let your thinking act like a thermometer, going go or down according to impressions of thought coming at you from others around you.

Think like a thermostat, and determine the atmosphere of thought you circulate in.

We think like a thermostat when we acknowledge divine Mind’s dominion over our experience.

Heated emotion, fearmongering, predictions of disease, anger, and their unruly kin, are not to be honored as thermostats. They are false beliefs about God’s universe and need to be replaced with an understanding of Mind’s control over one and all.

Live like a thermostat, never as a thermometer. Live free of error influence.

20 thoughts on “Live as a thermostat, not a thermometer”

  1. Fantastic analogy and just what I need today! Thank you yet again Evan. This blog is a treasure, it just promotes the presence of Gods peace and Love. Just what we HAVE every moment❣️

  2. Thanks Evan, that’s so helpful. I know I’m constantly trying to watch for “triggers” that would send my thought to that of a ” thermometer”. But evil is not a place, person or thing. Thanks to all the bloggers. We are so blessed.

  3. I just minutes ago checked the temperature in my mom’s home with an app on my phone that works with the thermostat nearly 400 miles away so that I can adjust it remotely. Reading this post following that action reminds me to adjust my thought, that is, pray to remain steadfast and confident that God is in control even as disturbing news is being reported locally and far from here – and to expect my prayer and every effect to correspond with God’s control here and everywhere. Thank you Evan.

    1. Thank YOU, Debbie! You CAN and DO trust the ever-present Mind
      (of your Mom and All!) to be in control of her “atmosphere,”
      and to tell YOU what to do with that remote! Ain’t Love grand!

      Sue of Scotts Valley, CA ;<)

  4. In the first chapter of Genesis it says God gave man dominion..or in a revised version for today God made him a thermostat not a thermometer….
    To fall into anger or judgement is to loose this dominion.
    So we have to see it, feel it and believe it..
    “If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection,
    then mortals never beheld in man the reflex image of God.”
    S&H 259: 13

    1. Thank you! Your comment made me laugh.
      “In the first chapter of Genesis it says God gave man dominion..or in a revised version for today God made him a thermostat not a thermometer….” It is so true. It is wonderful being a thermostat and divinely sanctioned at that!

  5. A thermostat is a control. A thermometer is an indicator.
    (There are thirty-five references in the text-book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, for indicator.) (Sixty-seven on control) Lots to study.
    A brief look at them this morning indicates these references are offering assurance of God’s control.
    Last evening we entertained a young man who’s the son of a doctor. He stayed for dinner.
    He had nursed his father though the popular belief of the pandemic. The conversation began with that topic. This doctor has been like so many other care givers working tirelessly giving comfort to those afflicted.
    I began to listen for God’s guidance. The control was the lesson of Jesus walking on the water. I told the story to the young man, especially the part where Peter was able to walk on the water as well. Then the nothingness of matter was discussed.
    The young man left enlightened. To my surprise this morning’s lesson on Matter, has the biblical citations from the book of Matthew 24:22 – 36. The same experience related to this young man.
    He took with him copies of the Sentinel, and of the weekly magazine issued by the Christian Science Monitor.
    This morning’s Spirit View helps in gaining control over the suggestion of exposure to erroneous
    influences so prevalent concerning the pandemic.
    Angels bringing release. Peace and Gratitude

  6. As always, thank you, Evan for your inspiration-filled blog. Will put “Be a thermostat not a thermometer” in my journal. We live in the pure atmosphere of joy, love, health and hope!

  7. Thank you so very much Evan. How many times we say “just the thought I needed today”.! So very grateful that a friend told us about your blog .

  8. This blessed blog is the “morning meal” that we as Truth seekers can partake of together. How grateful I am for the open invitation to join in this feast of divine ideas that uplift, inspire, nourish, sustain, and “feed the famished affections”. Thank you Evan.

  9. This is so helpful. It’s a wonderful analogy. Suggestions of loneliness and isolation seem strong and it’s easy to fall into the trap of dealing with them as if they were real conditions instead of just mental suggestions – being a thermometer when one has the tools to be a thermostat. One of those tools is Evan’s discussion of animal magnetism in the August Christian Science Journal- a brilliant support and defence. Thank you, Evan, for all your giving!

  10. Thank you very much, Evan, I love it too. This interesting comparison is so clear. And the translation into metaphysical explanation is very understandable.
    I had to do some writing work as clerk for my church. I sat outside in the garden reading this SpiritView. And suddenly I noticed that it explained to me, how to do this work. I just had to acknowledge divine Mind`s dominion over my experience, over my experience as clerk of my church. And I knew that I could not else but express divine intelligence in order to do my work very well. So I went to my computer and did that work, and at the end now I am satisfied with it, thanking God for Evan`s so healing and uplifting and mentally awakening SpiritView!
    My Thermostat is presently simply: “in atmosphere of Love divine we live and move and breathe”, hymn 144. I love that hymn.

  11. Thank you Evan. This is such a perfect analogy and just what I needed today. As a high school teacher, it’s often very easy to be reactive to situations that are presented to us from students who don’t seem to have the best behaviour or backgrounds. Instead I will try to reflect that thermostat – Divine Mind- that sets the optimum “temperature” of thought and maintains harmony.

  12. Thank you Evan for the clever spiritual metaphor of man as the thermostat, reflecting the stability and constancy of Mind.

    As the thermostat we are held at the optimal temperature, and our though remains in the right place. That is our true nature, reflecting the one Mind, ” with whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning.” This is from James 1:17, which was also mentioned in the article Angie gave a link to today, Thank you Angie for sharing with us these great articles!

  13. Being Irish, and German with a splash of Spanish – I sometimes forget that I should be living life like the thermostat and come flying out like a thermometer instead. Your comparison is so like me, especially when I forget that our true nature is reflecting Mind and that Divine Love holds us all. Thank you for the great article. I have saved it and printed it out to review daily.

    1. Thank you, Evan, for such a simple yet profound analogy. I am a high school English teacher, and today I will be having my students doing some self-reflective personal writing that oftentimes brings up powerful memories and emotions for them. Teaching hybrid right now, with half my students in class and half remote, I have been struggling whether of not to do this writing with them, because under normal circumstances I can physically be with my students and offer them comfort if the writing becomes overwhelming for them. But now I know that I can be God’ s thermostat, no matter where I am or my students are, radiating God’s Love as all-encompassing, ever-present everywhere. I shall lean into part of my favorite Bible verse: “in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” I need to let God lead me and my students, as He has always done. I am setting my thermostat on “Peace.”

      1. Love the idea of setting thermostat on Peace! I will also add setting mine on Love, as well. I may be working with students soon, so I know both of these qualities are very much needed by young people during this time of pandemic and wildfires, unemployment and financial insecurity for students and their families. We can all pray for and support young people and educators at this time of year, especially, as schools attempt to help and comfort students, as much or more than educating them, even. We can all be better models as parents, friends, family and neighbors by being calm and caring thermostats, in a world of constant seeming change because God Never changes, but is constant Love.

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