
Free image from PXHere.
What do the owl and the pussy cat have in common and what is their remarkable message to us?
Both have an amazing ability to rid themselves of harmful, even dangerous, undigestible materials. The owl cannot chew its food. (Got no teeth).
It swallows its prey whole, bones and all. This prey goes directly into the owl’s gizzard where it uses digestive fluids and bits of sand and gravel to grind and dissolve its usable tissue. The tissues that cannot be digested, like fur, bones, teeth, skulls, claws and feathers are too dangerous to pass through the rest of the owl’s digestive tract. To safely excrete this material, the owl’s gizzard cleverly compacts it into a tight pellet that the owl regurgitates. The regurgitated pellets are known as owl pellets. See photo below! Yuck!
Cortez Island Museum photo by Christian Gronau

If this clever gizzard did not form these pellets and rid the owl of these harmful tissues, the owl would surely die!
And a cat! You see your cat suddenly wake up from a peaceful nap and start peuking on your new rug. And up comes a scary looking damp wad of undigested hair, commonly referred to as a hairball. They actually look very similar to the owl’s pellet! Like the owl, their digestive system forms that hairball as a way of riding itself of a potentially dangerous amount of hair.
What toxic, potentially life threating things do we take into our bodies? THOUGHTS!
Hundreds of books have been written on the subject. Books like Stinkin’ Thinkin’, Stinkin’ Thinkin’ Stinks, Whoopin’ on Stinkin’ Thinkin’, Get Out of Your Head: Stop the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts, Recycle Negative Thoughts, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your World, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, Prisoners of Our Thoughts, Shut Up: Silence the Negative Thoughts……
The Scriptures agree with the power of thoughts. Proverbs 23:7 says, ‘As a man THINKS in his heart, so is he.’ We are what we think! That is why God admonishes you to ‘Take into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ I love that word ‘Captive’. Like the owl and the pussy cat take ‘captive’ potentially harmful materials, we are admonished to take captive toxic, potentially harmful, sometimes even criminal thoughts, wrap them up in a pellet or hairball in your mind and GET RID OF THEM!
Renew your mind and be transformed the scripture says. You renew your mind by studying the word of God! For example, who does the word say you are? It says you were made in the ‘image and likeness of God’! Is this who you ‘think’ you are? You are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. Is this what you think about yourself? These are good thoughts!! In fact the scriptures encourage us to think about only good thoughts. ‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.’
Philippians 4:8
And it is ultimately God’s plan to ‘conform you to the image of His Son!’ Romans 8:29!! As you renew your mind, you become conformed to Him, and begin to think like Him! Can you imagine? And your reward will be to know that you are loved unconditionally, have perfect peace, a wonderful joy, success and purpose in life and ultimately a home in Heaven!
Great message, Stu! I love the Bible passages. 🙂 God’s Shalom, John
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This reminds me of the ‘Plant Project’. Its where a school put two plants within the same room, with the same amount of sunlight, and watered them the same. The only difference was one plant was spoken positively to and the other, negatively. The plant with positivity, flourished! And the plant with negativity, withered and died. Be careful what you think about yourself, what your thoughts are in general, and what you say aloud. Thoughts and speech are powerful!
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I love the analogy. Sometimes those”bad”
Thoughts can even give us a sour stomach if we don’t get rid of them!
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If only thinking good thoughts would make it so. One can only try every day to be better.
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I’m familiar with those pellets. One of our childhood homes had two very tall pine trees in front. Two horned owls made one of those trees their favorite perch. We always knew when they had come back by the pellets we found deposited near the front porch. Yuck! So this makes your illustration here of wrapping up our toxic thoughts and expelling them, come to life. Great post!
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Excellent, just what I needed.
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