"Watch The Attitude"

By Zach Wood

Colossians 4:5-6

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,

so that you may know how to answer everyone.

 

 

There are some days at work when I am feeling wonderful and in a good mood toward everyone.  Then, there are days when I struggle to smile at anyone because of some personal problem going on in my heart.  With so many different personalities in my job environment, it is quite easy to become annoyed with the approaches some people take toward me. 

 

Yesterday, I found myself becoming annoyed immediately toward a co-worker.  I felt that I was being monitored and ridiculed for petty things.  As I was standing there, I knew I needed to pray and ask God to give me strength and to help me to love this person.  I prayed hard that He would give me strength that I could not have by myself.  As I meditated in my area, I remembered how Jesus reacted toward those who were mean toward Him.  Jesus responded in love and never retaliated with hurt or a bad attitude toward others.  As I remembered those times, I simply asked my Savior to give me strength to show others love no matter how they approached me. 

 

I was amazed then at the peace I felt and how better my day went because I just left everything to God.  I am not a pro at this process and I need to do better at just allowing God to work through me and use me to show His love to others.  There is a hurting world of people who need to see the true, genuine love of Jesus Christ lived out in us.  It is easy and sometimes desirable to become aggravated and lose our temper with those around us.  No, we are not perfect, but we cannot use that excuse to keep on letting our attitudes get the best of us.  We need to remember to allow God to shape us and mold us into more of His character by helping us to show love toward others. 

 

At times, I feel like I am never going to grasp proper attitude adjustment toward those who are mean toward me or show no respect.  However, no matter what I am faced with, I need to remember Paul's words that I am to be wise toward outsiders who do not know Christ and make sure my attitude reflects His love.  I cannot control how others treat me, but I can sure control how I react toward them.

 

We all need to watch our attitude when we are around people who are not believers in Christ.  They need to see real, genuine love instead of a normal worldly attitude that most people show.  Watch the attitude, because it could help save a life for Him.