Lessons from a Child

Last night, after what had seemed to me to be a long, hard day, I had to stop off and pick up a few things. It was raining and I had been driving in traffic for an hour. I pulled in the closest available spot which was at the end of the row and as I opened my door to step out, I sunk my entire foot and shoe into a deep puddle. I thought, that figures..."it's just been one of those days".

As I was shopping, a little girl around two or three years old caught my attention. She peeked around a corner to laugh and smile at me. I think she probably would have taken me up on a game of chase through the aisles of Target if I had played along. I laughed at her friendly innocence.

After I had made my purchases, I wandered back through the parking lot in the rainy drizzle looking for my car. (I can never remember where I park.) Finally, as I peeked around the corner and found my car, I saw the little girl again. She was splashing happily in that same puddle right next to my car.

And then it hit me...

Life isn't about our circumstances, it's all about our
attitudes.

Andrew's mom gave me a book for Christmas called, Lord, Change My Attitude: Before It's Too Late by James MacDonald. We all laughed about what she was trying to tell me by that. But seriously, from what I've read so far it's a great book (and very appropriate for me). One of the main principles I've taken away from the book is that...

We choose our attitudes.

The quote below is something that my dad has said to me for many years of my life, but I often have to be reminded of it's truth...even if it takes a child to show me.

"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