What Are You Thinking About?

    Two sisters, a year apart in middle school, returned from winter break after a week at Disney World with their family. One was down in the dumps and when asked what was wrong, she retorted, “I just came back from a week off school in Florida to this freezing cold weather and homework––that’s what’s wrong.”
    The other sister was all smiles and at the top of the world. She was asked why she was so happy. “I just came back from a week with my family in Florida, where it was warm and sunny, and we had a great time!”
    Some people cry when a good time is over. Others smile because it happened.
    The difference in these two girls’ attitudes will be telling of how their lives turn out. The one will go on and struggle in her relationships, jobs, and life in general. When things go well, she’ll have a hard time enjoying it. When things go poorly, she’ll be quick to invite others into her misery.
    The other sister will thrive among friends and build strong relationships. She’ll face as much adversity but find hope to overcome and reason to rejoice in good and bad. Arthur Rubinstein said, “I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.”
    I don’t think this is just the old optimism vs. pessimism debate. I am an optimist and I do get annoyed with pessimists. But I know that they are often more realistic than I am and they have reason to get annoyed with me. And if it weren’t for the pessimists, we’d have trouble seeing pitfalls to avoid.
    I think this is more about attitude than anything else. We will find in our Authentic Faith study in Philippians in a couple of weeks, that how we choose to think, and even what we choose to think about, is primary in our emotional state. And the combination of the two are highly involved in determining how our lives turn out. Happy people are not necessarily those who have everything going for them. We know that. People with joy are those who have learned to look at life from a joyful perspective. Those who are always sure they would be happier doing something different or had they been handed different circumstances, consign themselves to an unsatisfied existence.
    Robert Fulghum in It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, wrote, “The grass is NOT, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.”
    Life does not just happen. For the most part, we make what happens in life. And that, starts in our mind.
    “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8 ESV).
    What are you thinking about?