Attitude

YOUR ATTITUDE: How important is it?

We’re all going to experience a certain amount of blessing and a certain amount of pain as we pass through life. Sometimes we’ll experience failure; at other times we’ll experience success. Sometimes we’ll get a well deserved promotion; at other times we won’t. Sometimes we’ll fell like we have won the world: at other times we’ll feel like giving up. That’s the way life comes at us from day to day.

Achieving and maintaining a “good attitude” when life comes at us from so many directions is one of the most difficult, yet, one of the most critical things we’ll ever face.

The individual who allows his attitude to turn “sour” will suffer for it in a thousand different ways. It will color the way he thinks, the way he feels, and the way he responds to almost everything. There’s no way to escape it: like our shadow, our attitude is always present, shaping our thoughts, our feelings, and our responses to life.

The attitude we have toward our job affects our performance; the attitude we have toward others affects our relationship. If our attitude toward our neighbor, for instance, is one of love we’ll fell like baking him a cake; if it’s one of hostility we’ll feel like scattering nails in his driveway. Attitude governs our entire outlook on things.

One doesn’t have to be around an individual very long before he can sniff out the kind of attitude he has. A gracious attitude makes a gracious person; a sour attitude makes a sour person; a suspicious attitude makes a suspicious person. In a sense we are what our attitude is. Our attitude literally shapes our whole personality--how we think, how we feel, how we study, how we work, how we l, play---everything!

It’s reflected in the little boy who says: “If I can’t pitch, I’ll take my ball and go home.” It’s reflected in the person who says, “I’ve been hurt, so I’m throwing in the towel.” It’s reflected in the individual who doesn’t give a day’s work for a day’s pay. On and on the list goes. The whole tone of life is set by what our attitude is.

It’s easy to have a good attitude as long as things are going our way. It’s when the washing machine breaks down, when a child breaks our favorite vase, when an expected promotion doesn’t materialize, when and unexpected expense or loss occurs…that’s when we find it hard to maintain a gracious attitude.

One thing about “attitude” for which we can all be grateful is that attitude is not fixed. It’s not something we are born with that can never be changed. Certain things in life are not ours by choice. They’re ours by birth--a large nose, a gravelly voice, crooked teeth, etc. There’s not much we can do about these. Our attitude, however, is different. It isn’t foisted upon us at birth. It’s something we acquire. And thankfully, it’s something which can be changed. I may have to live with the dark fact that I wasn’t born a beauty queen; but I don’t have to live with a bad attitude. To have one of these is to have it by choice. Otherwise I’d change it.

When people take advantage of us, we don’t have to respond in self-pity, resentment or rage. We can return blessing for cursing, kindness for injury, love for hate. It’s all a matter of choice.

Two soldiers were stationed in London during the Second World War. Both were directing airplanes in and out of the runway on their bombing missions. The weather was damp and cold the airfield ankle deep in mud. One soldier whistled while he worked; the other grumbled and complained. The situation was the same for both--”attitude” is what made the difference. Any one who tolerates a bad attitude is doing himself a great disservice.

Your attitude, like your shadow, will be with you wherever you go. It will color your whole life-- your feelings, your reactions, your personality. It will affect you for good or for evil in a thousand different ways. To the degree that your attitude is bad, to that degree it needs to be changed.

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