Today in church our Pastor was talking about choices. In this case he spoke of salvation. Do we choose our salvation or did God choose our salvation? Did we pick him or did he choose us? Are we vessels of grace or vessels of wrath?
Got me to thinking. While we do have choices in life, there are also many things we have no control over. We didn't pick the time, place or circumstance of our birth. We did not pick our birth parents or siblings. For the most part we didn't even choose our health problems as much of it is genetically controlled.
One thing I am certain of is we can choose our attitude. We can choose to be joyful or not. We can choose to love or not. We can choose to be angry or not. We can choose to be friendly to those around us or not. I have found myself in more occasions than
I'm willing to admit choosing those emotions that only serve to make me miserable only to realize I'm letting my circumstances dictate my emotions, usually not helping me out one whit in the process.
That's why I love this writing on Attitude written by a guy I like to listen to time and again. Maybe you've heard it?
“The longer I Iive, 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.”
Charles Swindoll