My life as of today!

I just got back from my best walk yet this year! THANK GOD FOR THE SUN!!!! Weekends that my daughter is with her dad are LONG, so I love plugging in my I-Pod and just tuning into the sights and smells of the neighborhoods around me. It's good thinking time too...
As I walked through the suburban neighborhood behind my apartments I remembered a time when my attitude about life was so different. I had all of my hope in my home, the structure that I lived in.. I thought that if I had a nice house, people would think I was accomplished or something. It would make a statement about me. I thought if I had the white picket fence and drove an SUV I would have happiness...
My life as I dreamed it would be with the white picket fence was not reality. I assumed things would go one way and they didn't. We all know what assuming does! I'm not the person I was a year ago. I have gained countless friends and have more support than I could have dreamed of, but this has come at a high cost. I have lost friends and people in my life who were important to me. People who saw the white picket fence around my house and assumed it meant happiness too. People who didn't live my life, but told me what decisions to make based on their perception of my reality. I grieve the loss of those friends and the dream that I had. But, if I live my life based on how others think I should live it, I lose myself.
I've found a really interesting church that has helped me to change my attitude about life. It's not about following a list of prescribed rules and regulations to please the crowd, and somewhere in there you are pleasing to God too. It's not about having the white picket fence so you appear a certain way. It's not a Jiffy Lube mentality either...I'm not in and out, repented, redeemed, and moving on with life. They've taught me that responsible drinking will NOT send you to hell ( I was raised the daughter of a Southern Baptist pastor, what do YOU think I was taught?). They've taught me that it's not about going door to door with the "You're going to Hell," pamplets (probably because of the beer in your hand ). IT IS about opening your door to live life with your neighbors and co-workers. Living with the knowledge that even though not one of us deserved it, Christ died for all of us. Not just the people with my attitude about life, not just those with white picket fences, or those who look like me, or talk like me. ALL of us!
Life keeps moving, I continue learning, and my attitude about it all keeps changing! I have this quote hanging in my office and work and thought of it just now...

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, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, 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 every day 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% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes. Charles Swindoll