The Amish Voice 7
A Good Attitude Will Change Your Life!
John is the kind of guy that is always in a
good mood and always has something posi-
tve to say. When someone would ask him
how he was doing, he would reply, 'If I were
any beter, I would be twins! If a friend was
having a bad day, John was there telling the
friend how to look on the positve side of the
situaton.
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 positve person all of the
tme. 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 tme something bad happens, I can
choose to be a victm or...I can choose to
learn from it. I choose to learn from it.
Every tme someone comes to me complain-
ing, I can choose to accept their complaining
or...I can point out the positve side of life. I
choose the positve 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 situa-
ton is a choice. You choose how you react
to situatons. You choose how people afect
your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad
mood. The botom line: It's your choice
how you live your life.'
I refected on what he said.. Soon there-
afer, I lef my place of employment to start
my own business. We lost touch, but I ofen
thought about John when I made a choice
about life instead of reactng to it.
Several years later, I heard
that he was involved in a
serious accident, falling
some 60 feet from a tow-
er. Afer 18 hours of sur-
gery and weeks of inten-
sive care, he was re-
leased from the hospital
with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months afer the acci-
dent. When I asked him how he was, he re-
plied, 'If I were any beter, I'd be
twins...Wanna see my scars?' I de-
clined to see his wounds, but I did
ask him what had gone through his
mind as the accident took place.
The frst thing that went through
my mind was the well-being of my
soon-to-be born daughter,' he
replied. 'Then, as I lay on the ground,
I remembered that I had two choices:
I could choose to live or....I could choose to
die. I chose to live.'
'Weren't you scared? Did you lose con-
sciousness?' I asked.
He contnued, '...the paramedics were great.
They kept telling me I was going to be fne.
But when they wheeled me into the Emer-
gency Room and I saw the expressions on
the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got
really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a
dead man'. I knew I needed to take acton.'
What did you do?' I asked. Well, there was a
big burly nurse shoutng questons at me.
She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I
replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped
working as they waited for my reply. I took
a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity' Over
their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to
live.. Operate on me as if I am alive, not
dead.'
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors,
but also because of his amazing attude....I
learned from him that every day we have
the choice to live fully.
Attude, afer all, can make all the
diference for each day!!!
The apostle Paul writes:
... for I have learned, in whatso-
ever state I am, therewith to be
content. I know both how to be
abased *without+, and I know
how to abound: every where and
in all things I am instructed both to
be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to sufer need. I can do
ALL things through Christ which
strengtheneth me.
—Philippians 4:11-13
…
sold Joseph to Egypt?
And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me, I pray you. And they
came near. And he said, I am Joseph
your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Now therefore be not grieved, nor an-
gry with yourselves, that ye sold me
hither: for God did send me before you
to preserve life. … And God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity
in the earth...So now it was not you
that sent me hither, but God…
—Genesis 45:4-8
Five chapters later, Joseph reminded his
brothers again that it was God who sent him
to Egypt, not them.
But as for you *brothers+, ye thought evil
against me; but God meant it unto good,
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save
much people alive. —Gen 50:20
And because Joseph understood the true
Sovereignty of God, he was also able to say to
his evil brothers,
"Now therefore fear ye not: I
will nourish you, and your litle ones. And he
comforted them, and spake kindly unto them"
—Gen 50:21
In Proverbs 16:9, God tells us very
clearly, “
A man's heart deviseth *plans+
his way: but the LORD directeth
*establishes+ his steps.”
Are you going through a difcult tme in your
life? Have you questoned whether God even
cares about you? Maybe, just maybe, the
reminder of what happened to Jonah and
Joseph will help you gain a new perspectve
of your situaton. I pray it does.
Just like Jonah understood who cast him into
the sea; just like Joseph understood who sold
him into Egypt, so we MUST understand who
it is we batle against each day.
For we *you and I+ wrestle not against
fesh and blood *other human beings+,
but against principalites, against pow-
ers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. —Ephesians 6:12
The next verse tells us:
Wherefore, take onto you the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand.
—Ephesians 3:13
—Story contnued from back page—
Who cast Jonah into the sea?