Hey, It's Your Attitude!

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I don't mean a attitude of being snooty and looking down on someone. What I'm going to say is more of a mindset, a way to control things we have to live with.


Why do we have a short fuse? Most of the time it is because things are not being done our way.


It always amazes me if I let go of my natural desire to have it my way, and turn toward a compromise, things turn for the better. One instance I distinctly remember. I was sound asleep when I was awakened by a dog barking outside our bedroom window. My first instinct was to holler or shoot off my gun to scare the bugger away. Then, for some reason I decided to accept the barking. I visualized a cute young pup on a midnight adventure, encountering a possum. I said to myself, "He is doing what comes natural. He'll make someone a good watchdog. He'll quit before long. I wouldn't mind having a dog like that myself." Before finishing these pleasant thoughts I was back asleep.


Not long ago we had to spend a night at a motel. When we turned the noisy room heater off, I found myself lying awake, bothered by the constant hum and roars of the truck and car traffic outdoors. I had a choice, turn the room heater back on, or, as I finally decided, to imagine the wind roaring through the pines around our cabin. In no time I was asleep.


Did you ever say to yourself, "I could not live next to these railroad tracks with freight trains rumbling by all night long." . . .  Well, people do. And if you ask them, they don't even hear those trains any longer. They have made an attitude adjustment.


If your husband or wife snores, you can lay there and get more and more aggravated. You can consider jeopardizing your marriage and move to the spare bedroom. You can shove him or her into a new position hoping the brief reprieve would let you get back to sleep; only to be awakened again into an even more intense fit when the snoring repeats.  . . . Now, you can change your attitude and ask yourself how would you like to sleep without your soulmate next to you? What if he or she has past on to be with the Lord? Are you then glad that you finally have your peace. Certainly not. You will never know how much a mate is missed until you, yourself, lay at night, alone, in deathly quiet. No hope to hear him or her again. If your mate snores, follow the rhythm, learn to breath in rhythm. Enjoy the fact he is resting well. Think happy. "Poor guy, I know he is tired. I love that old buzzard." . . .  You too will fall asleep.  . . . You have managed your attitude.


People get divorced because of a lesser infringements, such as:


"You didn't put the toilet seat back down, . . . AGAIN!"


"Why do you keep squeezing the toothpaste near the front? . . . YOU KNOW THAT DRIVES ME CRAZY!"


"Don't you know how to hang the toilet paper? . . . WHY CAN'T YOU LISTEN?"


Attitude, attitude. Only if you love someone more than yourself will you have peace.

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