I use to work at Asbury College.  One year a residence hall was not open for over a month after classes had started so the students were spread out all over the place and not necessarily in the best of accommodations. My staff and I made Attitude is Everything our theme for the year. We purchased T-shirts and made signs all around campus and the residences. See, we could have let this situation get the best of us, or we could choose to make it an adventure and something to talk about. It worked for all of us, not that I ever want to go through that again with a large number of students, but we all learned a lot about ourselves and not letting situations get the best of us.

The other day this story arrived in my mail box – it fits, so I share it here. John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” He replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or … you can choose to be in a bad mood – I choose to be in a good mood.” Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. “Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested. “Yes, it is,” he said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.”

Lynne Jahns, Christian Counselor