“The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Pr. 18:14

“A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.”  Pr. 17:22

Who can possibly overestimate the power of a good and godly attitude? Or the devastating consequences of a bad one? I love the way Eugene Peterson translates Pr. 18:14 in The Message – “A healthy spirit conquers adversity, but what can you do when the spirit is crushed?" Indeed, “what can you do” when the one string that has the most power to make or break our lives is frayed or broken? Scott Hamilton, the world famous figure skater and cancer survivor put it so well, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude."

There are really very few things we are in complete control of. We like to think that with enough planning, enough strategy, enough diligence, enough perseverance, enough finances, etc. we can gain control of the things we really want. But live long enough, and we all discover the folly of that belief. But what we are in complete control of is our most important possession - attitude. Charles Swindoll writes:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."

I love his line, "We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude”. Attitude may only be one string, but oh what a melody it is capable of playing! This is why we must guard it, nurture it, cultivate it, exploit it. Nothing can more vitalize our spirits; more bring Technicolor to our world, more transform our view of circumstances, than this one string above all strings. Churchill was exactly right, "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference". I highly recommend that we all take advantage of it! Through God’s strength, of course.