We Are in Charge of Our Attitudes

My friend Milton Fulton was the business administrator for a church I served in Jacksonville, Florida. His salary was a whopping one dollar a year! After a very successful career in the business world, he decided to use his retirement to serve the Lord by serving his church. So our family of faith benefited tremendously from his gifts and love of the Lord.

In Milton’s office on the bulletin board there was a single sheet of paper with the following paragraph centered on it:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It 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. It is more important than appearances, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…

Let us pray: Gracious God, we thank you for people like Milton who give so generously of themselves. We thank you for their example of service. Remind us each day of your grace, fill us with your spirit, and empower us to choose to live fully – even in the face of great struggles. We know that with you we can face this world and its challenges with joy and hope. Use us again as instruments of your love, through Jesus Christ. Amen.