Our daily lives we walk through each day and are affected by the attitude we have. I sure know that if I wake up in the morning and stub my toe on the corner of the dresser, than you might just find me going through the day with an attitude that its such a bad day. And as I continue to be , lets just say a grouch, I will find that each experience I have starts to become worst that the one before. I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about. If not then there is a great children’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. When I was a kid, and my mom first read this book to me I knew exactly how Alexander felt. I could relate, and even then I knew in some small way that it was his attitude that really shaped how he experienced the day. These past few years God has kept reminding me about this lesson. It is easy to get caught up on the bum toe that hurts as you walk. It is easy to get caught up in the problems you have in your marriage or even with your job. I know that sometimes we find ourselves only focusing on one thing that is bringing us misery. that thing in our life that we don’t want at all. You lose your job and find yourself depressed because you feel useless. Money problems happen and something needs fixed unexpectedly, so you get angry. You begin to ask yourself why in as much self-pity as you can muster. The day that is filled with sunshine only seems cloudy.
I think that is why I really love Thanksgiving as a holiday. It literally forces you to stop and think about the things you are grateful for instead of the things that are hard to handle and make the sky seem grey. I was reminded recently by one f my favorite poets Maya Angelou that “God puts rainbow in the clouds”. I believe this is so true, but sometimes when your attitude about what is only sees the grey you can’t really find the rainbow. I am sure it is there and once you step out of the situation and look back to the time you end up seeing the good that came out of the bad situation. I threw a rotten banana onto the floor once only to slip. I loved Chris but things had not been going well for some time, but all I could see was that I loved him and I didn’t want to let go. Then when things really were over and I was dealing with the fact that I still had to live with him for six more months until our lease was over. I could only have an attitude of anger and grief. I wanted to hurt him the way he kept hurting me, so I got into his face one day and pissed him off. I never seen him so angry in the few years I had known him. He just kept telling me to leave him alone, but I could not I was tired of being walked over so I just kept yelling back. He got so angry that he couldn’t control it any more so he picked up the desk chair and threw it on the floor. I had never pushed any one to the brink like that. It wasn’t like I was hurt or anything but I was sure scared. I threw that banana onto the floor with my attitude and it made not only me loose my own self control but his too. We both fell, not in an actual way tell you but in a way that somehow tarnished any kindness that was left between us. We didn’t speak much after that before we moved out a month later. I regret that the attitude I had could cause such anger and bitterness. As hard as things had been up to that point, at least there always remained a hope between both of us that someday we could be friends. And the broken chair that had to be taken to the dumpster was really just the last bit of love that cindered in our hearts for what was.
God kept telling me through scripture and sermons, and even songs that to find true Thanksgiving in our lives we must first shift our attitude about the things we do not want. Psalm 3:3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. If we allow the lord to lift our heads high to truly see what we can not when our attitudes do not allow it, then we can find the sun shinning and the clouds will disappear. That is the lesson in thanksgiving that he continues to remind me of each day.
Romans 15 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Oaks Of Splendor 