Right attitude goes a long way when things are bad
"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life."
- Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)
"Life is what you make it!" was something my father used to say. Sometimes when I was bored or wanted to sulk in self-pity over my problems, he would often give me that advice. Many times I just wanted to reply, "That's your opinion," and continue to sulk.
However, I have discovered that what my father said is true. As a matter of fact, our heavenly Father gives us the same advice. He gave us the right of choice.
We can choose a good attitude. Sometimes we have multiple issues that are weighing heavy on our hearts. Many may be serious. And while we can't seem to get our minds off our troubles, we can choose to find some bright spots to motivate us to make something better from our circumstances.
We can choose to live with passion or down and depressed, which deadens our joy.
We can choose to ask God for help. The Scriptures explain that sometimes we don't receive help because we don't ask. We should ask him to help us make the right choices. We should ask him to help us remain joyful while we wait for him to work in our lives.
We can also make a choice to accept ourselves for the person God created us to be, rather than continually going over our deficits and shortcomings. We all need to make improvements and repent our sins, but we can't continually beat ourselves up over them.
We can choose to be content with what we have and take good care of it. This makes us good stewards over what God has given us. If he sees we desire to take care of what we have, he can delight in giving us more.
We can choose to believe. Keeping a desire for self-improvement is a good step in making our lives better. In this day and age, with libraries, internet access, and learning channels, we have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. God tells us he gave us the ability to create wealth. We can enrich our attitudes and gain skill and talent through knowledge and hard work.
We can choose eternal life by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
God wants us to have a good life and points out we have the right to choose. Since life is what we make of it, why not make a choice to adapt an attitude to accept what comes our way that we can't change, and change what we can. I believe this is the first step to cultivate a better life.
• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, speaker, personal or group life coach and nurse. She can be contacted at Annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413. Visit her website at www.annetteebudzban.com.