Attitude

I think all of my life I have heard the poem by Charles Swindoll...you know the one...

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on my life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes."

Although I have always heard the words, mostly quoted to me by my mom or some teacher, the words have been brought to a whole new light this week. Stay with me for a moment while a ramble and hopefully it will all tie together in the end!

A couple of weeks ago, our minister Brian Gann preached during our Reel Faith series. He used a movie clip from the movie Remember the Titans, so of course it gave me a desire to see the whole thing again...and I did! This time though, a scene really struck me. It's a scene when the players are "forced" to get to know one another or continue doing three-a-days. Two of the lead characters come together and try to make the conversation quick and to the point. "I'm Gerry, you're Julius, let's get some particulars and get this over with!" Well needless to say, things don't go real well and although Gerry has a lot to say about what Julius is doing wrong, Julius makes a strong point in the end. "Attitude reflect leadership, captain!" WOW!! I can only imagine how this real life scene must have played out and the things that went unsaid.

These past couple of weeks have been rough for me, there have been some really high HIGHS and some really low LOWS...but I'm called back to this scene, this comment, this poem. How is my attitude? How is my leadership? Am I stepping up where I should or simply allowing my attitude to play a role and not follow the calling God has placed upon me?

We will all find ourselves in moments like this and unfortunately, we will all serve under poor leadership at some point in our life...but how do we deal with it? How do we rise above? I think Philippians 2:5 says it best, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus!"

Heavenly Father, help me to walk that walk, to talk that talk, especially this week. You know my heart, my hurts, my hangups and you love me in spite of them. Help me to show that love, that forgiveness to others. In your son's most precious name, Amen!

Peace Out!