Attitude Matters

Philippians 4: 8-9Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.

Colleen Barrett was an American business executive who served as president of Southwest Airlines. There is a quote attributed to her: “Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.” We cannot control many things in our lives. But the one thing, she is saying that we do have control over, is our attitude.

An author writes about his friend, a woman in her late 60s who needed to find work because life circumstances had left her in need of money. The only job she could get was with the city grounds crew. She mowed parks. She plants flowers. She digs weeds. In the summer, her step counter regularly logs more than 100.000 steps, over 40 miles, each week. It is a physically strenuous job. One that she did not choose. The author asked her one day about work, expecting to hear a litany of complaints. Instead, what he heard was how she loves her job, being outdoors, in God’s creation. She celebrates that she is strong and fit, not like most of her friends her age. She had a choice as to how to view her life, and she celebrates the blessings that her work has brought her.

If we can control our attitude, which I believe we can, how do we do it? Paul in the letter to the Philippians gives us one clue. If we focus on the good, the pure, the pleasing things instead of the negative, we will have a much more positive outlook on life. Think of the woman who had to go back to work late in life. Where did she put her focus? On all the positive things related to her job, not the negative.

I know how hard this is to do when life presents overwhelming challenges. It is so easy to let your mind stray towards all the negatives and to dwell on all the what-ifs that are not hopeful. I think it is human nature to do this. It takes conscious effort to keep focused on the positives. This attitude is not denying the hard things in life it is just not giving them any power. Also, it is an awareness that no matter how much we might fret about these negative and hard things, we don’t have much, if any, power to change them. All we control is our attitude.

So what about y