I cannot tell you the amount of time we have spent within our home talking about our “attitude!” I think Bill, Brewer, Thomas, Collins and myself would 100% agree that we have struggled and battled tremendously in our attitude toward many things, especially in the area of golf which has been a large part of the Front 9 of our lives.
In the last six years, I have personally spent much time in self reflection over my attitude about multiple things and people in my life. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t liked what I have had to reflect on and “dig up!” As I wrote about in a previous journal on “guarding your heart”, in order to keep a neat, thriving garden you have to “dig up” the weeds to make room for the healthy fruit. Digging up and looking at my attitude, which was sometimes hidden deep in my heart, has not always been a pretty picture.
You see, outwardly my “attitude” at times may have appeared fine to other people. It may have appeared acceptable, good or even positive, all the while on the inside…… a litany of stink, slim, and sludge brewed (a.k.a. anger, negative, hopeless, bitter); what I call “hazardous waste!” The kind I have now put into one of those “red boxes” labeled “hazardous waste” and I intend to leave it there!!!!
The journey for me personally has been so hard but yet so REWARDING!!! I love and embrace the fact that “God loves us where we are, but HE doesn’t want us to stay that way!” God wants “Forward Progress,” reminding you this is not the same as “perfection”. But He is and always has been in the “life changing business.” Let me encourage you…..”digging up the weeds” that exist in the depths of your heart…..can unclog arteries in yourself where “new life blood” can enrich and cause you to breathe God’s oxygen in the purest form.
Discovering how to develop a “new attitude” involved examining the short and simple scripture found in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not man!” It is just that simple! When we take our eyes off a HOLY GOD and put our eyes on Man and pleasing Man, we are opening ourselves up to breathing air filled with “carbon dioxide” which will destroy our heart…..and thus destroy our lives. It will thwart great and mighty things God has prepared in advance for us to do.
For me, I had to start looking at every single area of my life…….. the very obvious and constant was God’s call: for my marriage, as a mother, as a daughter, as a sister, as an aunt, as a daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, friend. Also extremely important were those specific things God had gifted me to do, what I call my “shape and strength zone”. Yes, things He had created me to to do outside of the obvious and listed responsibilities. Basically, in all areas I had to examine why I was seeking approval….and whether I was seeking the approval of man or God.
NO wonder my attitude needed a major adjustment………fear of not pleasing man and having people happy with me all the time was the driving force of my life. I don’t like conflict or the feeling that people aren’t pleased with me…..I had to come to MAJOR GRIPS WITH THE FACT that pleasing God did not, and in fact would not, in many instances meet with the approval of man. It required major overhaul for me. I had to “mentally put blinders on” and walk forward only seeing God directly in front of me, not looking at anyone to my left or to my right. Realizing God is the only one with the “helicopter view”. Letting HIM direct my path has been the Starting point for a positive, confident and reassuring attitude. I had memories of living that way before, so I knew what it looked like and felt like, but at some point the weeds had taken over the “garden of my heart.”
Today, I would be lying if I said my attitude was perfect…..I am a work in progress…….but I can say…..being intentional every single day and UNDERSTANDING…..HEALTHY ATTITUDE….COMES from seeking God and His will, not mine nor that of man. It includes applying Philippians 2:14-16, “Do all things without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without finding fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life–in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.”
God’s desire is for all of us to be “light,” to shine like “stars”. So that our labor is not in vain…….examine your heart for the “weeds of a bad attitude” which stems from who you allow to be the boss…..Is it God or Man? I have found pleasing God to be much more rewarding and fulfilling. It is no fun to be BOUNCING LIKE A PING PONG BALL while TRYING TO please man.
Blessings for taking ownership of “your attitude”. It is there you will find clear, pure oxygen.