I was a at a retreat with my friends during high school when I learned the concept of garbage.

At least a dozen of us were sleeping in bunk bed. One of my friends had fallen asleep and was already dreaming.

Suddenly, my friend let out a loud curse word — in his sleep! He doesn’t remember doing it, but the rest of us heard him loud and clear.

The next day our leader talked about what happened, and reminded us of something he had told us many times before.

“Garbage in — garbage out.”

That curse word spoken in my friend dreamed was symbolic of the garbage we feed our minds every day.

And later, our minds will produce that same garbage — whether we like it or not!

It’s interesting how obsessed we are with healthy food and dieting. We passionately avoid eating garbage — or we eat all the garbage we can and find ourselves jumping in with the latest diet trend to save our dignity.

It’s also interesting how obsessed we are with preserving the environment. We make it a priority to use environmentally friendly products and recycle garbage.

But shouldn’t we be concerned with the garbage we feed our minds?

We are careless about what we watch on TV, what we read in magazines, what we discuss with others, and what we think about.

And yet, we are somehow surprised when garbage comes out unexpectedly.

Whatever we feeds our minds will eventually come out. We either filter it on the way in, or fight it on the way out.