A Great Gift You Can Give
Matthew 2:9-11 - “Once again the star appeared to them, guiding them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, myrrh.” NLT
Proverbs 23:7 - “As a man (young person) thinks in his/her heart so he/she becomes.” KJV
Wise men brought gifts and presented them to Jesus. We celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to family and friends. I want to suggest a great gift you can give this Christmas.
You can give your family a great gift. You can give your teachers a great gift. You can give your friends a great gift.
Here is the gift you can give: A healthy, positive attitude.
The Carnegie Foundation discovered that to be successful on the job, relational skills are far more important than knowledge. Its research found that only 15 percent of a person’s success is determined by job knowledge and technical skills. Eighty-five percent is determined by an individual’s attitude and ability to relate to other people.
The key to success in most jobs is this: “Knowing how to get alone with people.” 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is made up of how you respond to what happens to you.
Jesus is our role model for having a right attitude. Philippians 2:5-7, “Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing (he laid aside his power and glory) he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.”
Our goal is to have a Christ-like attitude.
A Christ-like attitude is teachable.
There are several things that keep you from having a teachable attitude.
Pride keeps you from being teachable. To learn mean you learn to ask questions. You sometimes refuse to ask questions because you think your questions might be viewed as being stupid.
Person who are teachable are willing to listen to instructions and do their best to carry out the instructions. A teachable person is not a know-it-all.
A person with a teachable attitude is not afraid to say, “I don’t know the answer. I need to do further study. The teachable person is not afraid to humble themselves and say, “I’m sorry for what I said or did.”
Persons filled with pride and conceit; tend to look down on other people. They have a sense of superiority. They constantly look for what they can find is wrong with people and their situations rather than what is right.
# The story is told of a man who decided to become a monk. He joined an order where silence was the cardinal rule. The monk could only say two words every decade.
After ten years the head monk called him. “Well,” he said, “you can say your two words now.” The man replied, “Food tasteless.” Having said his piece the monk returned to his quarters to spend the next ten years.
Another ten years passed, he was once again summoned to his superior’s office to speak just two words. This time he said, “Bed hard.”
Another ten years passed, now a total of thirty years had passed, and the monk was summoned again by the head of the order. He was told that the time had come to speak his two words. He said, “I quit.” Immediately the head monk jumped up and responded, “I’m not surprised. You have been complaining ever since you got here.”
Your attitude affects your outlook on life.
Proverbs 23:7 - “As a person thinks in his heart, so he becomes.” Your thinking does affect your actions and outlook on life.
The Psalmist knew the importance of having a healthy optimistic outlook on life. Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be goad in it.” Psalm 23:6, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.”
When you get up in the morning you have a choice. You can say in your heart- :Good morning Lord,” or “Oh no, not another morning?”
An attitude of pessimism does affect your outlook on life.
A farmer with an optimistic attitude purchased a bird dog. He asked his neighbor if he had seen his new birddog. The neighbor said, “You mean that mangy mutt I saw penned up behind your house. He doesn’t look like much of a bird dog to me.”
The farmer with the bird dog asked the other farmer if he would like to go duck hunting and try out his new bird dog. The pessimistic farmed agreed to go.
The pessimistic farmer shot a duck and the owner of the bird dog sent his dog to fetch the duck. The dog rather than swimming out to get the duck; walked on top the water and brought the duck back walking on the water. The pessimistic farmer said, “Hmm, your dog can’t swim can he.”
The pessimistic person is always looking for what is wrong with people. His attitude colors his outlook on life.
The grandson of a grandfather decided to play a trick on his grandfather. While the grandfather was sleeping the young boy took some limburger cheese – cheese that smells like rotten eggs- and put the cheese on the mustache of his grandfather. When he woke up he took a sniff and said, “This room stinks.” He walked out into the kitchen and said, “This kitchen stinks.” He walked around the house and said, “This whole house stinks.” He walked outside and sniffed the air and said, “The whole world stinks.”
The problem was under his nose all the time.
Pastor John Osteen in his book, “Your Best Life is Now” tells the story of Nick, a big, strong, tough man who worked in the railroad yard for many years. Nick was a faithful worker, but he had one big problem. He had a negative attitude. He was known around the railroad yards as the most pessimistic man on the job. He perpetually feared the worst and constantly worried that something big might happen.
One summer day, the crews were told they could go home an hour early as a favor to the foreman’s birthday. All the workers left, but Nick somehow locked himself in a refrigerated boxcar that had been brought into the yard for maintenance. The boxcar was empty and not connected to any train.
Nick yelled and screamed and banged on the doors, but since everyone had gone home no one heard his call.
Nick knew he was in a refrigerated box car and guessed the temperature in t he car was well below freezing. He thought, “What am I going to do? If I don’t get out of here, I’m going to freeze to death.” The more he thought the colder he became. He found a piece of cardboard and scribbled a message. “Getting so cold. Body numb. If I don’t get out soon, these will probably be my last words.”
The next morning, when the crews came to work, they opened the boxcar and found Nick‘s lifeless body crumpled over in the corner. His body was cold as ice.
Nick died, but the investigators discovered that the refrigeration unit for the box car in which Nick died was not turned on. The outside temperature that night was 61 degrees.
The Apostle Paul gives us wise counsel on developing a healthy attitude and outlook on life. Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”
You become what you think about all day long.
Here’s the good news. You can change. If you tend to see your life and the world in a negative way, you can change. You can determine to be more like a thermostat than a thermometer. A thermometer changes with the weather. A thermostat changes the temperature.
# I read about a man that took a short cut through a cemetery on a dark black night. He was drunk and in the darkness stumbled into a freshly dug grave. At first he tried to get out, but then, in his drunken stupor, he sat down in one corner of the grave and went to sleep.
A little later, a young man, who had just taken his girl friend home, decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. As he was running along, he fell with a thud into the same home. Scared to death, he picked himself up and desperately started trying to climb out of the grave. When he couldn’t get out, he really panicked. He started crying out: “Help, help!” “I can’t get out, I can’t get out.”
At that point the old drunk in the corner woke up and shuffled over to the young man and said, “No, you can’t get out.”
And g uses what? He did! He was motivated to change his circumstance.
Which of these four songs reveal your attitude toward life?
1. Make the World Go Away
2. Raindrops keep falling on my head.
3. I did it my way.
4. “Oh, what a beautiful morning”
When you have a positive attitude you become a cheer leader for others. You make an extra effort to give encouraging words to others.
# A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they say how deep the pit was, they told the two that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tired to jump out of the pit with all their might. The group of frogs kept telling them to stop because they could never get out. They were as good as dead. Finally, on of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.
The second frog continued to jump as hard as he could. The crowd of frogs continued to yell at him and told him to stop the pain and just die. The frog jumped all the harder and finally made it out of the pit. You see this frog was deaf, unable to hear what the other frogs were saying. He thought they were yelling encouragement to him entire time.
Remember by the grace of God you can turn pessimism into optimism, gloom, despair and sadness into joy.
Proverbs 23:7 - “As a person thinks in his heart so he becomes.”
This Christmas give the gift of a healthy positive attitude to your parents, your teachers and fellows students.
