For the week of September 6, 2006

Me, Choose My Attitude?!?

If you have ever been through the FISH training in your workplace, you know all about the importance of attitude. I don’t know about you, but I’ve often found it difficult to simply “Choose Your Attitude” when I’m in the midst of a stressful or frustrating situation. Yet, I did read a very good article this week that encouraged me to take a second look at that old axiom. Here it is:

"This may shock you, but I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, my fame or pain, my reputation, my circumstances, or my position. The attitude I choose keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.

Yet we must admit that we spend more of our time concentrating and fretting over the things that can’t be changed than we do giving attention to the one that we can change, our choice of attitude. Stop and think about some of the things that suck up our attention and energy, all of them inescapable: the weather, the wind, people’s action and criticisms, who won or lost the game, delays at airports or waiting rooms, x-ray results, gas and food costs.

Quit wasting energy fighting the inescapable and turn your energy to keeping the right attitude. Those things we can’t do anything about shouldn’t even come up in our minds; the alternative is ulcers, cancer, sourness, depression.

Let’s choose each day and every day to keep an attitude of faith and joy and belief and compassion.

Take charge of your own mind!"

No author was credited for this particular article, but whoever it is, he has a great point! Attitude is the by-product of our general outlook on life. If our outlook is self-centered, then of course we’re going to have a bad attitude if our day doesn’t go exactly the way we wanted it. But if we are Christ-centered, we view every day as a gift from God and even the bad things have the potential to shape our character into something stronger, better, greater.

This week, let the word of God shape your outlook and, as a result, your attitude:

Finally, brothers, 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).

-William Sherman-