A little thing called attitude……

One of the things I liked most about growing up Baptist in Mississippi is that moment in church where people were allowed to go up and give a testimony.  We have all become so private about our issues and triumphs until we fail to share our testimony with others.  Sometimes our story might be just what someone needs to hear. So let me offer up one of my MANY testimonies.

Every day I give my FB friends a daily quote of inspiration. Sometimes those quotes are more for me than for them.  Some days I need to inspire myself.  When I was a middle school teacher, we had a banner on the wall that read, “Your attitude determines your altitude.”  At that time, I didn’t fully grasp that concept.  It wasn’t until I started to grow as a person and grow in my faith that it really hit home for me.  Very recently that quote really became my mantra.  About nine months ago, I took a lateral position within my agency, and from the very first day, I knew I had made a mistake.  I found myself going home (daily) with a headache, and sometimes even crying. I was miserable & very unhappy. As the months progressed, the job environment remained the same and at times, got worse. I started “ministering” to myself. I started to tell myself that whatever GOD has for me must be awesome.  This is a “stepping stone”, a preparation for what’s to come.  Now, as a believer, one would think that would be enough to make me feel better about my job situation. Well, unfortunately it wasn’t.  I started to experience health problems, developed a sleeping disorder, even my happy, perky demeanor had started to be affected. But two weeks ago I made a decision that I was no longer going to ALLOW the job to impact my quality of life, my health, or my personal happiness. God’s plan for me is SO much bigger than this.  The job environment is the same, but my attitude towards it changed and I cannot tell you how much better I feel.  I am back to being the happy me.

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, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday 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% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.” ~ Charles R. Swindoll

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~ by nikpitome on January 23, 2011.

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