Happy Or Unhappy - Your Choice Series

THE AWESOME POWER OF ATTITUDE PT 3

"HAPPY OR UNHAPPY, YOUR CHOICE"

"CHOICES & BY-PRODUCTS

This our 3rd message on attitude... In our first message we discussed such things as: How your attitude reveals the real you (remember the jar of water with the loose lid?); we also talked about how your attitude effects every relationship in your life and how we have the power to choose our attitude.

In our 2nd message on attitude we talked about How to get along with the most significant person in your life... YOURSELF....

Because if you can’t get along with yourself your neighbor is in big trouble...

And we said that in order to get along with yourself you need to be a forgiving person,,, you need to be confident in who you are -- you need to be a person you can respect and finally be a person who is reaching beyond....

Today, our message is entitled happy or unhappy it’s your choice....Choices & By-products

On fourth of July we went to Sea World. Well we actually started out for Disney but by the time we got to the Magic Kingdom it was full and no one else could go in.

After some adventure (that I don’t have time to get into) we finally made it to Sea World... we had a good time despite the heavy rain. The fireworks were great!! (best I’ve seen in years)

As we were leaving the park at about 11 pm along with the 1,000 other soggy tired theme parkers. I noticed 2 wheelchairs ahead of us... One was a man and he caught my attention as he was going up hill -- I was amazed at how fast he went - and I thought about how difficult it must be to push yourself through the park in a wheel chair all day...

The wheelchair right beside his... this one had a battery on the back... I thought how that must be a lot easier, than as I got closer I noticed that the lady in this wheel chair not only couldn’t walk but she didn’t have legs or arms...

When I was close enough to where I could hear them talking - I didn’t hear complaints about the rain or the crowd trying to leave. I just heard laughter and excitement in their voice about the great time they were having... They had a lot of reasons to be unhappy, but they were not. They choose to be happy.

Now I know we could write this off as superficial -- just 2 people who didn’t know any better. But let me give you the thoughts of one of the most famous person who ever lived. President Lincoln was known for his ability to state great thoughts in a simple fashion. This is what he said: "most people are unhappy as the make up their mind to be..." -- in other words happiness and unhappiness is a choice.

Happiness is a popular pursuit TODAY, as a matter of fact when our country was born over 221 years ago many men signed a document we know as THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, and in that document we find the following words -- "WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.

And America and Americans have been in the pursuit of happiness ever since... And sometimes this pursuit gets quit frantic as people run from one thing, or from person to another, trying to find happiness. Some run to fame, others to riches, and still others to relationships... And though these things look promising at the outset -- they eventually find that they were not the oasis of life they appeared to be, but were merely a mirage -- and they hold only dry desert sand in our hands.

Question; Why are so many people unhappy?

In a world of abundance and unlimited opportunities, more people are unhappy today than ever before. People are flocking to psychologists at a record rate; stress pills and pills for ulcers and stomach problems are the top sellers (among both Christians and non Christians)...

We live like kings and queens with many machines to serve us. Yet, researchers tell us that 80% of workers are unhappy in their jobs; 75% of married people are unhappy with their marriages; a large number of single people are unhappy with their singleness. Unhappiness is a plague that has come upon the land.

UNDERSTAND THAT NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY! We are prone to think that if we can just get the right job that we will be happy. No you won’t. You will find something wrong with every job. People go through marriages like quicksand. they mistakenly tell themselves that if they just had the right mate, they would be happy. No one can make you happy, because happiness is an inside job. Happiness comes from the attitude of being pleased with who you are what you do. It is an attitude of the mind. It is a choice. And it is God’s better way for you to live.