Feeding the Good Wolf: A Journey of Refocus

The ancient Cherokee parable of the two wolves has inspired and haunted me for years—the story of the grandfather who tells his grandson about the battle between two wolves living within us all. One wolf represents anger, greed, jealousy, and fear. The other embodies love, peace, generosity, and faith. When the boy asks which wolf wins, the grandfather simply replies: “The one you feed.”

For the longest time, I believed feeding the good wolf meant starving the bad one—a relentless battle of resistance and willpower. I would clench my fists against negative thoughts, push back against destructive impulses, and exhaust myself in an endless war within my own mind. What I discovered, however, was profoundly different and infinitely more liberating.

The Desert Revelation

My understanding transformed when I began to truly contemplate Jesus’s experience in the wilderness. After forty days of fasting, weakened and vulnerable, Christ faced the tempter’s voice echoing across the barren landscape: “Tell these stones to become bread.” (Matthew 4:3) In that moment, I realized something revolutionary—Jesus didn’t deny His hunger. He didn’t pretend the temptation wasn’t real or powerful. Instead, He redirected His focus entirely.

“People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” He declared (Matthew 4:4), quoting Scripture written on His heart. In that pivotal moment, Christ demonstrated the secret I had been missing: the power lies not in resistance, but in refocus.

The Pattern of Temptation

Through years of spiritual struggle and growth, I’ve come to recognize the predictable rhythm of temptation in my own life—attention, activation, and action. First, something captures my mind’s eye. Then my emotions engage, and before I know it, I’m acting on impulses that don’t align with who I truly want to be.

I remember a particularly challenging season when anxiety threatened to consume me. Every fearful thought felt like a stone thrown at my peace, and I spent exhausting energy trying to fight each one. The harder I resisted, the more persistent they became. It was as if I were feeding the very wolf I was trying to starve.

The Transformation

The breakthrough came when I stopped fighting and started refocusing. Instead of pushing against anxious thoughts, I turned my attention to Scripture, prayer, and gratitude. “I capture every thought and make it obidient Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) has become my daily practice—not through force, but through intentional redirection. When my mind is occupied with God’s truth, there simply isn’t room for the destructive patterns that once held me captive.

Daily Rituals

This understanding revolutionized my spiritual discipline. Each morning, I now begin with intentional focus-setting. Rather than hoping I’ll have the strength to resist temptation throughout the day, I proactively feed my mind with Scripture, worship, and meditation on God’s character. I’ve learned that whatever gets my attention ultimately gets me. In the same way, each evening, I take control of how I wind down. I deliberately reflect on my day, highlight three positive occurrences, and acknowledge a negative one, always seeking the silver lining. Before I drift off to sleep, I articulate my unsolved challenges, trusting the Spirit to guide my subconscious mind in finding solutions aligned with God’s will.

When negative emotions arise—and they still do—I no longer see them as battles to be fought but as opportunities to practice refocus. Anger becomes a cue to meditate on God’s patience. Fear transforms into a prompt to remember His faithfulness. Jealousy signals a moment to cultivate gratitude.

The Good Wolf Grows Strong

What amazes me is how naturally my mind has begun to gravitate toward godly thoughts. Just as Jesus quoted Scripture in His moment of testing, the Word of God has become my automatic response to life’s challenges. The good wolf within me grows stronger not because I’ve beaten down its rival, but because I’ve consistently chosen what to feed my soul.

I’ve learned that I cannot always control my circumstances or even my initial emotional responses, but I can always choose where to direct my thoughts. This choice—made moment by moment, day by day—has become the most transformative spiritual discipline of my life.

The Cherokee grandfather was right: the wolf that wins is indeed the one you feed. But the feeding happens not through fighting, but through the sacred act of refocus—turning our minds toward truth, our hearts toward love, and our attention toward the One who transforms us from the inside out.

In the wilderness of our own hearts, we face the same choice Jesus faced. We can feed the good wolf simply by choosing, again and again, where to fix our gaze.