How is Your Attitude?

What's your attitude like today? Is it positive or negative? Is it one of hope or despair? Is it an attitude seeking adventure, or is it one that simply wants the day to be over and done with as quickly as possible? Whether we like it or not, attitude has a tremendous impact on what kind of lives we lead. This is why Charles Swindoll has written that attitude "is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do." "Attitude," Swindoll says, "is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home." In other words, attitude is everything!

In a sense, it's what we bring to the living of life that really matters. If I bring a bad attitude to the way I live, than I shouldn't be surprised when things turn sour each and everyday. But if I bring a positive, expectant, and happy attitude to each day, than even the worst of situations will not seem so bad. Southern reformer, Booker T. Washington once said to his students at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama: "The persons who live constantly in a fault-finding atmosphere, who see only the dark side of life, become negative characters. They are the people who never go forward." Think of that for a moment, and consider again what Washington said: "They...never go forward." Such people tend to stay locked in a world that is devoid of anything bright and beautiful. This is why the Scriptures make it clear that our minds must be renewed. In other words, if you let the Holy Spirit help you change your thoughts, then quite literally, you can change your world. Everything will appear to be different!