THE POWER OF ATTITUDE
Next to knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing is more important than having a good positive attitude. Your attitude can:
MAKE OR BREAK YOU
HEAL OR HURT YOU
MAKE YOU FRIENDS OR MAKE YOU ENEMIES
MAKE YOU HAPPY OR MAKE YOU MISERABLE
MAKE YOU A SUCCESS OR MAKE YOU A FAILURE
Some people think that the whole world stinks. Once a cranky grandpa laid down to take a nap. To have a little fun, his grandson put some limburger cheese on his mustache, right under his nose. Grandpa awoke with a snort, staggered out of the bedroom and shouted, "This room stinks!" On through the house he went, shouting louder, "This whole house stinks!" He charged out on the porch and shouted as loud as he could, "The whole world stinks!" The truth is, it was grandpa who stunk. The problem was right under his own nose.
95 times out of 100, when we begin to feel that things in life stink, the problem is not with the world or with others, but with ourselves. The problem is that our attitude has become negative. Change you negative attitudes to positive ones, and you can change your world.
Someone had rightly said that attitude not aptitude determines ones altitude in life.
Beginning today and lasting for the next several weeks we are going to talk about attitude. And this topic applies to everyone here, because we all have attitudes; sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not so good, and other times they’re just plain nasty.
Many of the ideas that we’ll be sharing for this series are from a book called The Awesome Power of Attitude written by Dale Galloway. I received this book free a couple of weeks ago when I attended a seminar that he was giving up in Winter Park on Building leadership. As I said I received the book free (explain) most of the books had do with attitude and getting along with people, maybe God was trying to tell me something.
Now today we just want to introduce the subject, lay the ground work for where we’ll be heading. And we will do that by revealing 3 facts about your attitude...
1. FACT #1; YOUR ATTITUDE - REVEALS THE REAL YOU
How important is your attitude? Your attitude is more important than: facts - circumstances - what others say - it’s more important than your past - your education and your money. Your attitude is more important than anything else.
And Understand that your attitude is much deeper than just a few thoughts you might think or not think. Your attitude comes out of the core of your being. Your attitude represents your disposition, your outlook, your very character.
The Bible says in Pr 23:7; "For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is..." (NKJV)
ILLUSTRATION;
> JAR OF WATER -- PUT A LID ON IT LOOSELY -- SHAKE THE JAR VIGOROUSLY UNTIL WATER FALLS OUT.
> ASK PEOPLE WHY THE WATER SPILLED?
. LID LOOSE
. JAR SHOOK
. GRAVITY
NO, THE REASON THE WATER CAME OUT WAS BECAUSE THE JAR WAS FILLED WITH WATER. WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE IS WHAT COMES OUT.
Jesus said, in
MATTHEW 15:17-20
Your attitudes always become actions or reactions.
Let’s visualize it this way... The attitudes inside you are like a jack-in-the box. Have you ever played with one of them? You turn the little handle (all around the mulberry..) and the when you least expect it - he pops out. Now that’s a vivid picture of our attitude, when we least expect it, they will pop out and cause other people to like or dis-like us.
You see, much Louder than the words you speak is your attitude that keeps telling people what you are really like.
Personally I find this truth that my attitude reveals the real me - to be quit sobering. I like to say, like many others do, when I do or say something that obviously wasn’t the right thing, "I didn’t mean it, where did that come from," - it came from inside.
When I have a negative, nasty, critical attitude that’s the real me and when you have one that’s the real you.
Understand we don’t have an attitude just because we had a bad day (all that a bad day can ever do is shake our jar). The reason you have a bad attitude is because you have a bad attitude inside of you/inside of your jar.
FACT #1; YOUR ATTITUDE REVEALS THE REAL YOU.
FACT #2 YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF EVERY RELATIONSHIP IN YOUR LIFE.
What a difference your attitude makes! Your attitude affects every relationship in your life. And sometimes relationships will never get started in the first place -- because many times your attitude has built up walls... making it difficult for people to be around you.
Bad attitudes effect your marriage relationships/your relationship with your kids/at work/at church/friends
And the thing that makes a bad attitude so destructive is that like the jar of water with the loose lid on it, a bad attitude is eventually going to spill out into some negative actions - destructive words and deeds.
In Numbers 12:1-11, we read about 2 brothers and a sister. One brother Moses, had a good attitude. The Bible says that "Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone on the face of the earth.." In other words, Moses was teachable and cooperative. He treated people as he wanted to be treated and he lived a life that was properly lined up with his heavenly father.
But Moses’ brother Aaron and His sister Miriam on the other hand, chose a bad attitude - and they eventually spilled out. Miriam seems to have had the worst attitude and she infected her brother, Aaron. In verse one of Numbers 12 we read, "Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his cushite wife.."
Get the picture? here they are, family members whom Moses thought he could count on and trust, going around behind his back, criticizing him, stirring up trouble among God’s people against their leader, their own brother Moses.
YOU CAN NEVER TRUST PEOPLE
WITH A BAD ATTITUDE BECAUSE
THEY WILL DO THINGS THAT YOU NEVER
THOUGHT THEY’D DO
You see, most people who stir up trouble do so not out of right reasons but out of bad attitudes. The fact that Moses had married a Cushite wife was not the real problem - it just shook Miriam’s jar. This was just a symptom, an excuse. The real problem was that Miriam had a longstanding bad attitude.
This bad attitude stemmed from her jealousy of her brother’s position and leadership. And out of her own poor self-esteem she allowed herself to become critical and choose to cause trouble.
Often times the things that we criticize and get all stirred up about are not the problem at all. The problem is our own sour, sick, bad attitude.
I’ve seen and you have seen; bad attitudes;
Destroy; marriages/families/work environments/board meeting/ladies meeting/church services...etc
You see whenever you have an individual or a group of people filled with a bad attitude and wearing a loose lid, trouble is bound to happen, things will rapidly get negative.
FACT#3 YOUR ATTITUDE IS ALWAYS YOUR CHOICE
I like the man who was explaining to a friend about his days in college. He said, "No, I never actually was in the top half of my class, but I can say that I was in the group that made the top half possible..."
Two men are in prison. One looks out through the bars and sees only mud. The other looks out through the same bars and sees the moon & stars. They are both in the same place. What’s the difference? It’s the attitude of choice.
Without a doubt, the human mind is the most awesome creation of God. With it, God has given us the ability to think, to, reason and to choose whether we will focus on positive thoughts or negative thoughts. In every one of our lives there is the positive and the negative. The choice as to which one we will focus on and feed, nurture is up to us.
Understand You can’t choose what will happen to you today (it’s beyond your control) -- but you can choose your own attitude - we each have the power to decide how we will respond to what happens to us.
Dr Victor Frankl stood under the glaring lights of the Gestapo court in a Nazi concentration camp, soldiers had taken away from Victor every earthly possession - his clothes, his watch, even his wedding ring. And as Dr Frankl stood there naked, his body shaved before those cruel men, men who tired to take every ounce of dignity from him. At that moment Frankel said that he realized he was destitute except for one thing, . He still had something that no one could take away from him, not even the Nazi’s.
He still had the power to choose his own attitude. And he choose to not give that attitude to his enemies. He chose joy, he choose hope, he choose to be positive.
"I HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED FOR JOY!" ROBERT SAID.
HIS HANDS ARE TWISTED AND HIS FEET ARE USELESS. HE CAN’T BATH HIMSELF. HE CAN’T FED HIMSELF. HE CAN’T BRUSH HIS TEETH, COMB HIS HAIR, OR PUT ON HIS UNDERWEAR. HIS SHIRTS ARE HELD TOGETHER BY STRIPS OF VELCRO. HE DRAGS LIKE A WORN-OUT AUDIO CASSETTE.
ROBERT HAS CEREBRAL PALSY.
THE DISEASE KEEPS HIM FROM DRIVING A CAR, RIDING A BIKE, AND GOING FOR A WALK. BUT IT DIDN’T KEEP HIM FROM GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL OR ATTENDING ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY, WHERE HE GRADUATED WITH A DEGREE IN LATIN.
HAVING CEREBRAL PALSY, DIDN’T KEEP HIM FROM TEACHING AT ST. LOUIS JR. COLLEGE OR FROM VENTURING OVERSEAS ON 5 MISSION TRIPS.
AND ROBERT’S DISEASE DIDN’T PREVENT HIM FROM BECOMING A MISSIONARY IN PORTUGAL. HE MOVED TO LISBON, ALONE, IN 1972. HE RENTED A HOTEL ROOM AND BEGAN STUDYING PORTUGUESE. HE FOUND A RESTAURANT OWNER WHO WOULD FEED HIM AFTER THE RUSH HOUR AND A TUTOR WHO WOULD INSTRUCT HIM IN THE LANGUAGE.
THEN HE STATIONED HIMSELF DAILY IN PARK, WHERE HE DISTRIBUTED BROCHURES ABOUT CHRIST. WITHIN 6 YEARS HE LED 70 PEOPLE TO THE LORD, ONE WHOM BECAME HIS WIFE, ROSA.
WHEN HE SPEAKS MEN CARRY HIM IN HIS WHEELCHAIR ONTO THE PLATFORM. HE LAYS HIS BIBLE IN HIS LAP. WITH HIS STIFF FINGERS HE FORCES OPEN THE PAGES... WHILE PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE WIPE AWAY THEIR TEARS.
ROBERT COULD HAVE ASKED FOR SYMPATHY OR PITY, BUT HE DOES JUST THE OPPOSITE. HE HOLDS HIS BENT HAND IN THE AIR AND BOASTS -- "I HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED FOR JOY."
And let me give you an example of someone who was close to many of us. Judy faced an enemy perhaps more powerful then the Nazi’s or Cerebral Palsy. She faced an enemy that was unrelenting, cruel and unstoppable. She saw the things she loved taken away from her - her health, her energy, her job, her life. Yet in the heat of that battle she went to a store in Brandon Town center and bought a red t-shirt that said, ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING. When the manger of the store found out why she wanted it he was so moved by her attitude & courage that he gave the shirt to her - she wore it often to her treatments.. Judy had cancer -but because of her attitude cancer never really had her. Judy refused to her attitude away to cancer.
Another example today that is getting a lot of attention is Christopher Reeves - extremely positive and optimistic)
Maybe right now you are feeling pretty broken, your life has taken way too many turns for the worse. A lot of things have gone wrong. It seems like everything has fallen right down on top of you. You’re weary, overwhelmed and your hopes & dreams are fading fast over the distant horizon.
I know from personal experience that it is not easy when the stuff of life hits you on the head, knocks you down and then kicks you in the stomach. But in such times you must remember that there is something that your situation can never take away from you - that there is something that not even; Nazi’s, Cancer, cerebral palsy, paralyses or even what you’re facing can take away from you - your power to choose your own attitude.
No matter what has happened to you (some of you have had tough times; bad marriages, health$...etc), the attitude choice though is still yours. And understand that Jesus Christ wants to help you choose and cultivate a positive attitude.
I find it both interesting and tragic that the one thing that no person or circumstance can ever take away from us, the awesome power to choose our own attitude; is usually the first thing we give away.
For you see to blame our bad attitudes on another person or on a difficult circumstance is simply a cop-out. And If we allow events and people to cause us to be negative we are only hurting ourselves more because in addition to everything else we are know forced to live with the effects and misery our bad attitudes will bring.
YOUR ATTITUDE REVEAL THE REAL YOU
DETERMINES THE SUCCESS OF EVERY RELATIONSHIP
IS ALWAYS YOUR CHOICE
NOW Before we go today I want to give you four steps that you can take HOME WITH YOU THIS WEEK, STEPS that will help you be more positive
STEP ONE START SPEAKING POSITIVE WORDS
The first step in becoming a more positive person is to work at learning to speak positive words. Notice, I said learn. And the reason because that speaking positively is something you have to learn by practice. It does not come naturally. It is always easier to talk negatively, to criticize. I mean most of us can do that w/po even thinking, the negative words, comments and phrases just flow effortlessly from our lips.
The reality is that you help create the atmosphere in which you live by the words you speak. When your words are positive, you produce a creative, loving, accepting, positive environment. On the other hand when you speak negative words you create suspicion, mistrust and a can’t do anything right atmosphere.
Therefore the task of the Christian life is to eliminate negative words, to do away with words that hurt and tear down, replacing them with positive words, words that build up, edify and encourage other people.
Did you ever hear about the 2 guys who were in jail. Tom tried to be real positive no matter the situation. One day he sees his buddy Joe walking down the hall; Tom said to Joe; "Where are you going?" "To the electric chair," Joe replied. "More power to ya," Tom answered.
Well at least Tom was trying to speak positive words. You might say his heart was in the right place.
Beginning today, I dare you to try a little experiment with me. To everyone you meet, whether it’s at a gas station, at a store, at home, at work or at church -- try to say something positive and uplifting. Do it this for one day this week and see what happens. You’ll probably have a great day. Why? because positive words create a loving, creative environment in which to live.
STEP TWO NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS LOOK FOR GOOD AND YOU WILL FIND IT
A positive person (and that’s the kind of person I want to be) is not one who refuses to recognize the negative (he knows there are plenty of negatives out there), but he refuses to dwell on them Remember there is always the negative and the positive in every person or situation.
And what a positive person does is develop the habit of looking for the best results even from the worst conditions... It’s always possible to look for something good, even when things look bad. And the remarkable fact is that when you look after and seek good you will find it. PEOPLE TEND FIND WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE.
You all l know that I’ve had some tough moments personally over the last few years. I can choose to dwell on the bad, the pain, the lose. Or I can focus on the good I had a great life with Judy and God has blessed me again with a beautiful wife that loves me and a new little girl - and John & Chelsea..
We can look at the land and always see giants if that is what we are looking for or we can look at the same land and see a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a meter of focus, it’s a matter of choosing g what you will look for.
Let’s apply this principle to a marriage. In your marriage if you always looking for the faults, what’s wrong, centering just on the negative you are going to be dissatisfied with your marriage. In addition you’ll not bring out the best but rather the worst in your mate. Consequently your whole marriage is going to fall into a nit-picking; negative, destructive cycle.
How do you break this kind of cycle in your marriage start looking for what is good and focus on that.
If want things to work out in life - if you want a good attitude - you need to focus on the positive - look for the good in every situation and every person and you will find it
STEP THREE IS TO TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR THOUGHT LIFE
Let me share with YOU the 3 F’s of taking charge if your thought life:
#1 FIX; "Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about it." (Phil 4:6,7 LB)
We are not to let our mind wander all over the place, but rather we are to take command of it and choose positive thoughts over negative ones.
#2 FILTER; Would you eat out of a garbage can that not only had garbage in it, but had maggots, poisons etc. To do so would be suicide. In like manner if you want to really take control of your thought life you need to filter the garbage out there.
#3 FEED; Question: what are you feeding your mind? It matters what we feed our physical body, doesn’t it? Many diseases we have today, from cancer, heart disease to no energy result from an improper diet. It is a fact that eating the wrong things can hurt you. But it is not enough to just stop eating the bad is it. Because if we do not start eating the good we will starve.
In the same way it’s not enough to only filter out the garbage from our minds, we also have to feed on the good.
Garbage in garbage out
Good in - good out
There are many source of good books, music..etc
But the greatest source of good thoughts is God’s word.
Put God in get God out. Put God’s word into your mind and it will come out in your speech..
Feed your minds on verses such as Ephesians 3:20/Is 41:10/Phil 4:19/Heb 13:6
STEP FOUR NEVER SURRENDER LEADERSHIP TO THE NEGATIVE -- ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE POSITIVE
Question: when you feel the mighty onslaught of a negative emotion, how do you handle it?
Here’s what you need to do: Admit it. Face it. But don’t give in to it. You see, one way to destroy a negative emotion is to replace it for example:
REPLACE:
anger with love
fear with faith
complaining with gratitude
bitterness with forgiveness
judgment with acceptance
feeling sorry for yourself with helping someone else
Right now I am going to tell you a sure way for gaining victory over negative emotions. Learn to pray out your emotions. Learn to cry them out and pray them out until you pray through to victory.
Dis you know that Jesus prayed aloud and with emotion? In Hebrews 5:7, we read; "During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him form death and he was heard because of His reverent submission..."
In other words Jesus shows us here by His own example how to pray out negative emotions to our heavenly father.
Hebrews 4:15, teaches us that our high Priest, "is touched by the feelings of our weaknesses..."
