Attitude Counts

The other day, I was in the grocery store, and I noticed a lot of gloomy faces. I began thinking about my mother, who a year ago lost my father, her husband of over 60 years, and she seemingly has been in a funk ever since. I have tried cheering her up, but her mood stays the same.

Now, I know that loosing someone is not an easy thing to get over, as I said, I lost my father a year ago. But, what I also know is that our moods and attitudes can and does become systemic.

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines attitude as: A manner of acting, feeling, or thinking that shows one’s disposition, opinion, etc… Something else we must add and understand.......attitudes are a choice, and they are both; habit forming, and infectious.

Unhappiness. Downcast. Grumbling. Contentious. Worrying, depression, Anxiety. Despair. Defensive. Complaining. Feeling defeated, lingering disappointment, sadness and anger, etc… The list goes on. These are all negative attitudes that do directly affect your person, your relationships, your circumstances, your family, your life.

Your attitude represents your disposition, your outlook, your very character. The Word of God says in Prov. 23:7; "For as a man (or woman) thinks in his or her heart, so he/she is..."

The word heart is the Hebrew word ?????? nephesh; which translates soul, which refers to a person’s inner desires, passions, appetites, emotions. And, as a man “thinks” is the word ?????? shaar; meaning to calculate or reckon, which actually is, what a person considers, imagines, feels or regards.

So, what this tells us that what a person considers, feels or regards in and to themselves is to their character and reflected in their attitude.

It is a person’s attitude more than their words that demonstrates their character. A person’s words are often used to conceal, misrepresent, or to counterfeit their feelings. But, we all universally, discern the essence of a person’s character in action by their attitude.

A person’s attitude is more important than what most people think. Our attitude 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. Attitude will make or break a marriage, a family, a friendship, a company, a church... etc.

We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. But, the remarkable thing is we do have a choice of our attitude, each and every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. Ephesians 4:23 KJV tells us, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind”; which is better translated in the (NIV) as “Be made new in the attitude of your mind.”

Clearly, God cares about our attitudes. What Ephesians 4:23 really speaks to is our natural ability to change from one condition to another condition. The word mind is ????, ????, ???, ????, ? nous; which is not mind our mere intellectual capacity, what and how we think; nous is our reasoning, feelings and volition or will combined. Nous is our temperament of character. Our attitude!

Your attitude represents your disposition, your reckoning, your outlook, your very character. And, your attitudes always become actions or reactions.

Jesus said, in Matt. 15:17-20, “17Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.

Our attitudes come from within us, and they speak much louder than words. Our attitudes tell people what we are really like. When I have a negative, nasty, critical attitude that’s the real me and when you have one that’s the real you.

We don’t have an attitude just because we had a bad day. The reason you have a bad attitude is because you have a bad attitude inside of you.

Like a jar of water that has a loose lid on it. When you shake the jar, the water comes spilling out. Someone may ask me, “why did the water spill out of the jar?” I answer, because the lid was loose, and when I shook it the water spilled out.”

No, the reason the water spilled out is because the jar was filled with water. What’s on the inside is what comes out when it’s shaken. That’s what Jesus tells us. What’s on the inside spills out. Like the jar of water with a loose lid, a bad attitude is eventually going to spill out into some negative actions - destructive words and deeds. All a bad day can ever do is shake the jar. What’s in the jar will spill out.