Attitude: Positive or Negative?

Where have I been for the last few days, you may ask (or not). Well, allow me to tell you…the LORD continues to work on my heart and mind about my “attitude/perspective” of things, of issues, of circumstances. He continues to bring the point home about focusing on the “positive”. No, I’m not talking about positive confession. I’m talking about what the Bible calls the renewing of our mind, the putting off and putting on, the meditating on whatever things are true, noble, praiseworthy, etc.

As my son’s birthday and our anniversary approached there was nothing “special” going on in my mind to do. Routing sets in and I just do one day at a time without really thinking. But…leave it to the LORD to speak to me and bring me back to the right perspective. I’ve been reading Elizabeth George’s book, A Woman After God’s Own Heart, in preparation for our upcoming Women’s Study. I have read this book before, but as always the LORD always has something to teach me or remind me through the reading of these books. And so through this book, in confirmation of God’s Word the LORD spoke to me once again about enjoying what “I have”. But, of course, being the flawed human being I am, I started to think “negative”. I began the dreaded “BUT HOW?” Praise God for His Spirit that pulled me through these thoughts and made me proceed to pray, look, and plan (of course). All of the sudden the “but how?” changed to excitement and anticipation of what God would have in store for us.

It began with the LORD giving me favor in the sight of my niece, Mony - she agreed to grandma sit (thank you Mony!)

Wednesday we chose to focus on our son. It was his special day. We made him the center of our attention. We set out to make his favorites and we enjoyed a relaxing, unrushed dinner together – it was wonderful. The next day we slept in – wow!!!(this was truly a give…believe me!) It had been a while since I could do this, and in fact I automatically woke up very early, but I squeezed my eyes and chose to stay in bed later. My husband and I laughed about not being able to sleep in. We decided that we must be “old” because we now wake up without an alarm – too funny! Thursday would be my hubby and my special day. We set out for the day. We had a wonderful relaxing breakfast and then we set out to just walk around and sit together at Victoria Gardens. We ended our day with a wonderful dinner – thank you Jesus! The LORD even provided a gift card for this…LORD you are good. We were content with this, but no, it wasn’t over.

Friday started out as a normal day. However, the LORD gave us a treat and we had the opportunity to spend time with our nephew, Jose (family is special to us). During lunch we spoke about the movie “Fireproof” and we all agreed it would be a good movie to watch. Later that day I remembered that we still had a gift card to the movies, given to us last year…my brain began to work, and by the end of the day my hubby and I were walking hand-in-hand into the theater (I cannot remember the last time we’ve been to the movies). My goodness, what a movie! It made my heart be more thankful for my husband and what the LORD has done for our marriage and our lives.

But we weren’t done yet…

On Saturday, the LORD once again left me in awe of what He can do. We had the privilege of attending a Couples Conference at Cosecha in Riverside. Everything the LORD had and has been teaching us about our marriage was made more clear and simple, and the teaching was incredible. About 20 couples from our church were there. There was a total of 150 couples…it was wonderful.

Yes, my attitude and my perspective changed, but it wasn’t automatic. It has to be purposeful; it has to be sought after. Reminds me of something I read once written by Charles Swindoll:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on 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 one
string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what
happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in
charge of our Attitudes.

So what is your attitude like?