Recently, we received an email from a TGC reader on the other side of the world telling us his story. “I was deep in my own darkness of negative thoughts,” he wrote, detailing a period in his life when depression and anxiety sent him to a psychologist—and also to the Scriptures.

At the suggestion of his counselor, he began to meditate on the list of good things in Philippians 4:8, filling his mind with whatever exemplified those qualities. “Things that were noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy were a sort of antidote to anxiety,” he wrote.

In his email, he asked if TGC would consider commissioning a series of articles allowing others to think on such things, too: “I believe such a resource would serve people well as we live in an ever increasingly anxious world. . . [it would be] a way to train our brains to look for true, noble, right, pure things as we travel through life.”

We agreed. Last week, we launched a short series of meditations about each of the words listed in Philippians 4:8. Beginning with Jen Pollock Michel’s reflection on “whatever is true,” each piece is an opportunity for its writer to reflect on that quality displayed in the world and to encourage all of us to think on such things.

In these times of confusion and worry, I invite you to take a moment to fill your mind with “whatever” is worthy of contemplation and to give thanks.