Jane Foard Thompson is an inspirational speaker and award winning author and poet. A former Montessori teacher in Texas and Utah, for eight years Jane and her husband were missionaries in Honduras, Central America. After working for the American Red Cross in Idaho, they now live in Florida, where she writes, leads music and women's Bible studies at their church, and enjoys nine grandchildren and her Golden Retriever, Lily.
When you hear “attitude,” do you think of someone strutting, chin high – maybe even with a chip on the shoulder? Someone looking for trouble? Someone who expects everyone to get out of their way?
That’s certainly an attitude, what I call BA – bad attitude.
But in truth, we all have an attitude. Attitude is how we approach life, what we expect when we arise in the morning.
It can be an attitude of defeat, and we find it hard to get out of bed, because there is no hope, no matter what we do.
It can be fear, and we postpone or avoid whatever we dread, even if it keeps us from what we need, or from what is good for us.
It can be entitlement, thinking we deserve everything, and we are angered or upset when everything doesn’t come to us as we expect, or those around us don’t jump to meet our needs.
It can be confusion that twists and turns us throughout the day, keeping us from accomplishing what we’d hoped to do.
It can be a constant pity-party, interpreting everything that happens as proof that, “Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me,” as we sang years ago, leading to a diet of worms.
It can be living short-fused, with anger ready to singe whomever doesn’t respect us, or gets in the way of what we want life to be.
It can be a neediness that sucks the life out of relationships, and deprives children of proper nourishment from parents.
It can be a need to control that drives us to strive to take charge of everything in our lives, and usually those around us. It wears us out, and drives people away.
Clearly, the way we think makes a huge difference in how we behave.
There is a lot of talk these days about picturing what you want, believing and you’ll make it happen. That can be taking attitude to the extreme, a kind of hocus-pocus, as if we were gods who could control the world with our thoughts.
All we really have control over is our minds. We are encouraged to “take every thought captive.” It’s up to us to choose our attitude.
We can choose to let life be a praise song.
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak, sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp, the full-bodied music of strings. Psalm 92:1-3 (MSG)
Light-seeds are planted in the souls of God’s people,
Joy-seeds are planted in good heart-soil.
So, God’s people, shout praise to GOD,
Give thanks to our Holy God! Psalm 97:11,12 (MSG)
Light seeds! Wouldn’t you love to be able to sow seeds of light into your mind that would grow and glow, giving you what you need to change your attitude?
Joy seeds to put a song in your heart, no matter your circumstances?
We can! This is the perfect season to start planting, because the seeds are giving thanks!
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. Col 3:15-17 (MSG)
Since I love music, I’m happy to receive the command to sing my heart out, and welcome the chance to do so. For me, singing praise turns my heart to gratitude quicker than anything else. I usually have the radio tuned to a Christian station throughout the day, and participate in the Contemporary and Spanish music ministries at our church. Without music playing, there is usually a song running in the back of my mind. I’m learning how to let the song continue, even when I’m alone and don’t feel well, or a rude, aggressive driver cuts me off on the Interstate, or my mother’s dementia makes it hard to find her in the midst of her ramblings.
Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I’m singing joyful praise to God. I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. Counting on God’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. Habakkuk 3:17-18 (MSG)
A deep revelation of the value of giving thanks came from Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, HarperCollins Publishing. I can’t recommend it highly enough. You can read her blog at http://www.aholyexperience.com.
My youngest daughter and her family have fun ways to give thanks before meals. My favorite is everyone clapping out, “I’m thankful for, I’m thankful for, I’m thankful for.” Then they point both hands to one person at the table who gets to say what or whom they are thankful for at that moment. Even the three-year old loves to participate, and the chant goes on until everyone has had a turn.
The more opportunities we build into our day to remember to be thankful, the more the attitude of gratitude will grow and mature in us.
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (MSG)
My birthday was the day after my last post, Clay Pots, where I talked about sinking into the arms of the Lord when I was overwhelmed. I awoke with my hand hurting constantly and the rest of my body not that much happier.
Courtesy of Sicha Pongjivatch at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
As wishes came in for a wonderful day, I felt stressed, trying hard to enjoy “my day” as I was supposed to, and never getting very far from miserable. The only sinking I did was into gloom.
When my hubby called on his way home from work to ask where I’d like to go for dinner, I couldn’t decide, didn’t feel good enough to get dressed and go out, didn’t feel good enough to cook (and I shouldn’t have to cook on “my day” anyway) . . . I ended with, “Just come home and give me a hug, and we’ll decide then.”
What I wanted was a hug to make my hand start healing, or at least stop hurting for a while, and my immune system to get the message and heal the rest of me, for the day to brighten, for me to fell whole, happy and loved. But, since I’m not married to Jesus, hubby’s hug couldn’t accomplish anything close to that. So my funk deepened.
We ended up settling on having him grill burgers. I thawed a gluten free bun and tossed a couple of salads, mumbling about how much longer it would be, at the rate my hand was going, before I wouldn’t be able to even peel a cucumber.
By the time my cousin, whom I had not talked with in months, called, I was ready to hit the next person who wished me a happy birthday. Lucky for her, she was on the phone from Maryland. To move from the birthday stuff, I asked about her family. She told me what her husband had gone through all summer, with surgery and one horrible complication after another.
You know how it is when you’re trying to figure out your route further ahead on the GPS, and you finally remember to zoom out? Instantly, you’ve got the picture, and know where you’re going.
courtesy of phanlop88 at freedigitalphotos.net
Perspective hit me like that. Pure grace.
I say grace, because, until afterward, I didn’t consider what he and many others have suffered that is so much worse that my situation, and decide to change my attitude.
The pity party scales simply fell away.
Something inside me was changed, and I use the passive voice purposefully, because I didn’t do it.
By the time we said goodbye I was truly receiving their birthday wishes.
My whine had turned into rich wine.
courtesy of James Barker ay freedigitalphotos.net
Jesus had done it again.
In case you don’t know the story, in Galilee where Jesus grew up, a wedding was a week-long event for the simple, hard-working people. When they ran out of wine halfway through, the host faced major loss of face (embarrassment). At Mary’s request, Jesus told the servants to fill the huge jars, for ceremonial washing, with water. When they poured out a sample, it was fine wine!
Amphorae by franky242 at freedigitalphotos.net
That is what this life with Jesus is. It’s not a religion, trying to figure out how to do it right. It’s not about the “oughts”, or shoulda’, woulda’, coulda’. It’s not about guilt, and being good enough.
It’s about a relationship with someone who loves us so much that he was willing to walk this earth in dusty sandals, who knows our weaknesses, each one of us, and is more than ready and able to transform the whine in us to fine wine.
We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text: No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this. Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—What God has arranged for those who love him. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you. 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10 The Message
Even though I wasn’t reading my own posts, I was being led to just that place of release and trust.
Do tough times always follow moments of insight or inspiration?
Last week, in Stuff Happens, I shared about how God saw me through a scary time after hand surgery. How, in spite of all that happened, surrounded by love and care, there was a glow to it. When it was all over I felt like my faith had grown.
Just when life was getting “back to normal” (I truthfully am not sure what that is) my hand started getting worse, instead of better. That means the surgery may have stirred up an inflammatory response that can go crazy. Already my thumb has a contracture, is getting harder to flex and hurts like the dickens. Enough whining. You get the picture.
Moreover, the infection I’d been taking antibiotics for before the surgery came back. After a few days on another round of antibiotics, although I initially starting feeling good, the infection grew substantially worse, instead of better — here it goes again – which means the bacteria is now resistant to that antibiotic. I’m allergic to the best antibiotics used for that purpose, and the choice is narrowing quickly. I started a new antibiotic on Friday night, was improving dramatically, but this afternoon felt like I was going backward.
On top of that, one of my children, who has had some tough stuff going on in the family, had even worse things poured on. In spite of all our prayers, everything is getting worse, instead of better.
What’s going on here?
Probably a lot of things I’ll only understand when I get to heaven. It could be the darkness before the dawn.
One thing I know is I’m finding out if what I believe about trusting God is real, inside, where it counts . . .
And outside, where others see it and are influenced by it — where the “ouch” comes in. Even on my finest day my life isn’t enough to illuminate others! As my husband likes to say, “We’re just cracked pots.”
It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.
If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.
That last line surely fits me!
Today we sang one of my favorites during the Spanish service, Puedo Confiar, which means, “I can trust.” It has a great line, “Puedo descansar,” meaning “I can rest.” It goes deeper, more like, “I can lean back and relax.”
Have you ever been in one of those team-building exercises where, blindfolded, you have to trust your teammate to lead you safely through obstacles? The high point comes when you are pushed backward, off your feet. You hope your teammate catches you (or at least breaks your fall if you’re bigger than they are).
We can fall back into arms that are big enough and loving enough and reliable enough to catch us, no matter what our feelings say, even when we can’t see or touch anything that assures us it is safe.
We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken.
The refrain of Puedo Confiar says I can trust God, even if the sun refuses to shine. As I sang, I closed my eyes and let myself emotionally sink back into His arms. (If you’ve been around the block a while, right now you might be humming, “Leaning on the everlasting arms.”)
We’re in a world full of hard stuff. If our feelings and ability to trust are focused on our circumstances we’ll be puppets on a string, jerked around by what we can’t control and don’t like. By the things that don’t fit into our plan.
Instead,I choose to close my eyes and lean into arms that have caught me every time I’ve fallen, even when I didn’t know who it was.
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.
(Quotes are snatches of 2 Corinthians 4:6-16, from The Message. You can download the YouVersion app to your phone or tablet, or got to Bible.com on your computer, and read the whole thing, in lots of languages!)
Let’s chat: What do you do when things pile up? When it seems like nothing is working right ?
Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (MSG)
Glimpse of Peace 