This may be a sloppy outline, I wrote it on the go
FIXING YOUR ATTITUDE
- Do What You Do For God And Not Man
If you do what you do for the LORD first and for other people second, you will always come out having a better attitude.
Colossians 3:23 – And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Colossians 3:17 – And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
If you do good at work because you want to please the supervisor, there will come a day where you are mad at the supervisor, and you’ll STOP wanting to WORK HARD!
You’ll become bitter and have horrible thoughts about how you should of never worked hard for that company in the first place. You were doing it more for the supervisors or superiors instead of doing it for the LORD.
You need to really try to focus on doing RIGHT because the LORD is with you and watching you, and not to please the men around you.
Don’t do what you do just so that other men can see you, give you a pat on the back, or be proud of you. Eventually they will be envious of you, expect more out of you, or even take advantage of you and want you to carry an unbearable load. You will get burnt out and bitter.
Your job will become a dread. You will hate your life. The same goes for a stay at home mom. Don’t just do what you do to please your husband, do what you do primarily to please the LORD. Your husband will disappoint you. Maybe he doesn’t appreciate anything you do, but the LORD appreciates everything you do.
Feeling unappreciated leads to a bad attitude. Feeling like no one cares or noticed the hard work you do can leave a bitter feeling in you and make you want to STOP DOING GOOD!
If you think about it, it’s not a bad deal that what you do down here goes unnoticed, because it will get even more notice when you stand before the LORD.
Do what you do for GOD, who won’t betray you, backstab you, give you more than you can bear, will always appreciate you, and will never fail you. Do that.
Next thing to do is to realize that…
- Keeping A Good Attitude Makes You Live Longer
Proverbs 17:22 – A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
There is something in us that has a desire to depart and to be with Christ, at the same time there is something that makes you want to live longer on this earth. If you want to live longer than realize a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
Did you know that there are some people that you should just try not to be around? There are people that will cause you to have a bad attitude because they have a bad attitude. They are very toxic. They are always bringing you down. Now, if it is your spouse, your just going to have to deal with it and pray to the lord for help. Same goes for your kids. BUT if it is just some friend you have or someone at work, DISTANCE YOURSELF! People will drag you down. You don’t want to hold hands with the person who is pulling you downwards.
Get around people who have a merry heart and you’ll have a merry heart.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. If you walk around with a bad attitude it can’t be good for your heart. Bitterness can’t be good for your bones. Stress can’t be good for your muscles, your neck, and your shoulders. You stay in pain because of it.
Get rid of the things in your life that are causing you unneeded stress.
- Strive To Be Like JESUS CHRIST, not someone else.
Philippians 2:5 – Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Php 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Jesus Christ took upon him “the form of a servant”. That is what you need to try and do. Quit worrying about making yourself the king of your life and just focus on serving others.
Many times you look at the big rigs or the big dogs in your life at work and church and you want to be like them and have a lot of people serving you and flocking to you. You would be more like Jesus Christ if you just focused on serving others. Making them happy. Being a blessing to them.
When you go to work, church, or somewhere else with the mindset of being the TOP DOG, you will end up getting into unneeded junk. That will just wreck havoc on your happiness meter. You will end up getting bitter. You will end up mad at other Christian’s for no reason other than they got recognition that you didn’t get.
You’ll get a bad attitude and start FAULT FINDING!
So do what you do for the LORD and not MAN, strive to be like Jesus Christ and serve others, and a MERRY DOETH GOOD LIKE A MEDICINE! You’ll live a lot longer.
- You Look The Way God Wanted You To Look
Some people are very angry, sad, upset, hate people, and hate the world because of the way they look.
God made you look the way you look. Obviously you could have done damage to your body and you can look certain ways because of bad decisions. But when it comes to how you truly look underneath what you and the world put on your body, God formed you that way.
Psalms 139:14 – I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Maybe you have an ugly face, maybe you aren’t as thin as you want to be, maybe you are very tall and your self conscious about it. Maybe your like me and haven’t grown since the 6th grade and you were always the smallest one in the class and got picked last in sports.
Luk 12:25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
That’s a rough verse for little people. But there are things about yourself that you can’t do anything about and you might as well just make the best of it.
If your not so beautiful than you’ll have less men or women flirting with you and you won’t be nowhere near as likely to be tempted to cheat.
If your small than you can fit in places people can’t fit in and your mostly a lot faster.
If your super tall than your wife can’t hide stuff on top of the fridge when she gets mad at you.
Just make the best of what God made you, easier said than done but you have to do it.
Another thing to remember is…
- Nobody Owes You Anything.
Ecc 4:4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
Many times people look at their neighbor and they are full of envy because they have something that they don’t. When most times the person that has the new car or new house or new whatever…put ina lot of work to get that new thing.
Facebook can cause you to see all the good things everyone has and never see the bad things they have. You start getting envious and wonder why you don’t have what they have.
Many times it is because you aren’t putting in the work and sacrifice that they did. Get up every morning determined to work hard and sacrifice.
Maybe you wish that you were more FIT. Most of the people who are FIT really had to sacrifice when it came to their meals, they had to run, they had to exercise. If you do that than you can be fit and if not being fit is causing you to have a bad attitude and to have a bad outlook on life than push the plate back and get really active. Maybe you have a health condition and that’s a different story but for
Most people this is the truth.
If you want a new car, quit blowing money and fancy dinners, cable tv, all these subscriptions to things, dvds, cigarettes, and everything else.
Learn to work and sacrifice. You won’t have to
Envy anybody. They will
Just end up envying you though
Also remember this next thing…
- You Deserve Worse.
Lam 3:22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Ezr 9:13 And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;
Job 11:6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Whatever it is your goin through, you actually deserve much worse than what your going through.
You don’t like your wife? You actually deserve to have a Jezebel witch of a woman who will cheat on you and won’t even make you a samdwhich and if she did make you a samdwhich you would be scared to eat it because of what she might of put in with the peanut butter. You don’t deserve a good wife, so don’t get mad if your wife is lacking in some areas. Same goes for your husband.
You don’t deserve to have an easy Job, you don’t deserve a car, let alone two cars, you don’t deserve a tricycle. If you have anything you have more than you deserve. If you will remember that, you won’t be unthankful. You won’t get unappreciative off what God has given you.
Ecc 5:19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
What ever portion God has given you, be happy with it because you didn’t deserve it anyway. You actually don’t deserve better.
- See People As Souls With Feelings, and as a mother, a sister, a brother, or father.
Many times you have a bad attitude with people around you. You might not say it but that shows there is something in you that thinks you matter more than they do.
Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think;
Your no better than anyone, everyone has problems, everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Your not seeing people how you ought to see them when you have a bad attitude.
Every person you run into is either a wife, daughter, and sister or a husband, son, or brother. They matter to someone even if they don’t really matter to you. If you hurt them it will most likely hurt the people they love. When you have a bad attitude around someone it can cause them to get a bad attitude and effect the people in their household.
You should see other people as SOULS, they are people that God made and they DO MATTER! They have feelings. You need to be mindful of that. A lot of people like to go around and brag and say “I don’t care to hurt your feelings” but many times they are the ones that are the most sensitive of them all.
1Ti 5:1 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;
If your around older men than respect them like you would a father. If your around younger men than respect them as a brother.
The same for females.
1Ti 5:2 The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
Php 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Php 2:4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
See people as SOULS! Souls that will live forever somewhere. What you say and do to them matters and has effects that go beyond just the moment. Your words can be like daggers or they can be an encouragement.
If you want to have a better attitude than consider how you SEE PEOPLE. Do you see them as souls that matter as much as you or just some type of robots in your world that you can treat however you like?
- You Need To Put More Focus On Your Family.
1Ti 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
If you go on the job with a focus on your family and how they are counting on you than it will fix your attitude.
Some people I work with who have families who are counting on them to provide have some of the best attitudes. They realize they have to be there. They realize they need a job. They realize there is someone else that matters BESIDES THEM and they can’t just quit and get mad over every little thing.
I know of men who have such a bad attitude that they won’t work to provide for their family because they can’t stand to be under a supervisor. They can’t stand to have someone telling them what to do. Their focus is on there self. When you start thinking about yourself and getting a bad attitude than look at the faces of your wife and kids on a picture. I have my kids pictures at the front of my bible. If I start getting mean and wicked and sinful than I look at those pictures. I have some people counting on me and it matters how I live and what I’m doing. I can’t just get an attitude and quit. Or get mad and smack somebody.
- You Need To Use Your Time Wisely
Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
If you use your time wisely than you really won’t get a chance to have a bad attitude. If you do all the things I’ve told you than your not going to have time to fly off the handle, worry about what other people have that you don’t have, you’ll have your own things, you’ll have your own goals.
Using your time wisely causes you to have very little time to do things that can give you a bad attitude. Being so into and noisy in other peoples business can cause you to have a bad attitude. I don’t have time to care about what everyone else is doing.
2Th 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
2Th 3:11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
2Th 3:12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
- Get Your Thought Life Under Control
2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
A bad attitude starts with you thinking badly about your situation and feeling sorry for yourself. If you can keep your mind under control this will work wonders for you.
For me my goal is to put out as many studies as I can to give people something to feast on in the Bible. My goal is to work towards getting through the whole bible verse by verse. My goal is to keep working to provide for my family and then spend time with them when I get home. My mind stays constantly busy all day. It gives me less and less time to feel sorry for myself.
- Quit Comparing Yourself To Others
2Co 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
This goes along with being nosey and envious of others. When you go around and constantly compare yourself with others it is going to keep you in a bad mood. Your mostly only seeing people at their best or when they are being good. You don’t see the bad and ugly that goes on at home. You don’t see how truly miserable they are. And if you did you probably wouldn’t want what they had.
It’s not good to go around comparing yourself with other Christian’s. Every Christian has something different the LORD wants them to do and you aren’t going to be able to do it like them and they can’t do it like you.
You’ll get into this game where you measure each others spirituality based on if they are doing what your doing to the level that you are doing it and you will end up bitter, burned out, and depressed and have a bad attitude towards them because you were never meant to do the certain thing they are doing anyway.
