Spiritual Attitude

What is the definition of attitude?

1. A PERSONAL VIEW OF SOMETHING: an opinion or general feeling about something. Example - a positive attitude toward change 
2. A BODILY POSTURE: a physical posture, either conscious or unconscious, especially while interacting with others
3. A CONSCIOUS ASSERTIVENESS: an arrogant or assertive manner or stance assumed as a challenge or for effect Example - a streetwise teenager with an attitude
4. AEROSPACE: orientation of an aircraft's axis: the angle of an aircraft in relation to the direction of the airflow or to the horizontal plane as it is flying

What is the definition of spiritual attitude?

I think the best way to understand spiritual attitude is through the way the word is used in aviation.

When a pilot is flying an aircraft, attitude doesn't refer to emotion or personality. It refers to the aircraft's orientation as it moves through the air. A good pilot must always be aware not only of where the airplane is headed, but also of how it is positioned in relation to the forces acting upon it—gravity, wind, lift, and turbulence. By paying attention to that orientation, the pilot can keep the aircraft level, make necessary adjustments, and stay on a smooth, safe flight path.

Our spiritual lives work in much the same way.

Spiritual attitude is our awareness of how we are oriented toward God and toward the people who share our lives. It is an ongoing awareness of what is shaping our thoughts, influencing our decisions, and directing the course of our lives. When that awareness is healthy, we are better able to stay balanced, make wise adjustments, and continue moving steadily toward the kind of life we are seeking.

So let me invite you to pause for a moment and consider a few questions.

How would you describe your spiritual attitude today?

How aware are you of God's presence and activity in your life?

How would you describe your relationships with the people who are closest to you?

There are no right or wrong answers. The purpose of these questions is simply to help you become more aware of where you are right now. That awareness is always the first step toward growth. Once we recognize our present course, we can determine whether we need to make a change, adjust our direction, or make a few course corrections so that our spiritual attitude better reflects the kind of life we are seeking to live.

The Three Basic Principles of Spiritual Attitude

Principle #1 - Your spiritual attitude about anything is a choice.

What do you see in the two pictures above?

At first glance, they may look like random, confusing images. But if you take your time, something begins to emerge. These are called figure-ground pictures, and they are commonly used to test what psychologists call figure-ground discrimination - our ability to screen out distracting background information so we can focus on what is most important.

That ability isn't just important psychologically. It's also important for our spiritual lives.

Earlier, I suggested that our spiritual attitude is largely a matter of choice. By that, I don't mean that we can choose everything that happens to us. Life often brings circumstances we cannot control. What we can choose is what we pay attention to and what we allow to shape our perspective.

Spiritual awareness allows us to screen out much of the mental and emotional clutter that fills our lives each day. It helps us move beyond the constant noise, distractions, disappointments, and worries that compete for our attention so we can focus on what is truly life-giving. It allows us to become more aware of God's presence, more attentive to the people around us, and more appreciative of the blessings that are often hidden in plain sight.

In many ways, we learn to see what we prepare ourselves to see.

If our attention is consumed by problems, conflicts with other people, disappointments, or fears about what might happen tomorrow, those things will gradually become the lens through which we view life. They will dominate our thoughts, influence our attitudes, and shape our experience.

But if we intentionally look for possibilities instead of obstacles, seek solutions instead of dwelling on problems, nurture caring relationships, and notice the good that is already present in our lives, our perspective begins to change. We don't ignore life's difficulties, but neither do we allow them to define us.

Our spiritual attitude, then, is much like those figure-ground pictures. We have a choice about where we place our focus. The background may still be there, but with practice, we can train ourselves to see what is most important. And as our focus changes, our experience and awareness of life change as well.

Now, I realize that some people may hear this and think it sounds overly optimistic or unrealistic. After all, isn't it more practical to expect the worst than to hope for the best?

I've never understood that way of thinking.

Why do we so often assume that a negative outlook is somehow more realistic—or even more intelligent—than a hopeful one? The truth is that a negative perspective can actually be very limiting because it focuses almost entirely on obstacles while overlooking the possibilities that spiritual awareness opens before us.

A spiritually aware person doesn't ignore pain, disappointment, or life's hardships. Those things are real. But they are not the whole story. Spiritual awareness reminds us that every challenge also carries the possibility of growth, every setback presents an opportunity to learn, and every difficult season has the potential to deepen our faith, strengthen our character, and reveal God's presence in unexpected ways.

That doesn't happen automatically. It begins with the attitude we choose to bring to life each day.

My grandmother understood that long before I ever heard the phrase spiritual attitude.

Whenever I was feeling sorry for myself as a child or complaining about how unfair life seemed to be, she had a way of getting my full attention. She would gently take my face in her hands, look me straight in the eye, and say,

"Son, if you're grumpy today or having yourself a pity party tonight, you picked that. And you're the only one who can do something about it."

At the time, I wasn't always thrilled to hear those words. But over the years I came to realize how much wisdom they contained.

She wasn't saying that we choose every circumstance that comes our way. We don't.

She was reminding me that we do have a choice about how we respond. And more often than we realize, that choice shapes not only our attitude, but the direction of our lives.

Principle #2 - Your Spiritual Attitude Determines Your Outlook on Life.

The Parable of the Very Bad Day

Let me tell you a story.

Once there was an eleven-year-old boy growing up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Farm life has its own schedule, and cows don't care if it's a weekday, a weekend, or a holiday. They still need to be milked before breakfast.

So every morning, without fail, at exactly five o'clock, the boy's mother would open his bedroom door and, in the happiest, most cheerful voice you can imagine, say,

"Good morning! It's time to get up. It's a wonderful day!"

It didn't matter if the sun was shining or rain was pouring down. It didn't matter if it was the middle of July or the middle of January when the wind seemed determined to freeze everything it touched. Every morning began exactly the same way.

"Good morning! It's time to get up. It's a wonderful day!"

The boy would climb out of bed, pull on his clothes, head to the barn to do his chores, eat breakfast, and then leave for school.

Day after day.

Month after month.

Year after year.

Then one bitterly cold January morning, with snow blowing against the windows and temperatures that only people from Wisconsin can truly appreciate, the boy was curled up under a pile of warm blankets.

Right on schedule, his mother opened the door.

"Good morning! It's time to get up. It's a wonderful day!"

That was one cheerful greeting too many.

The boy stuck his head out from under the covers, glared at his mother, and announced with all the determination an eleven-year-old could muster,

"Oh, no it isn't! It's a terrible day! And I'm not getting up!"

His mother stood there quietly for a moment.

Then she smiled gently and said,

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

She turned around, walked out of the room, and quietly closed the door.

The boy couldn't believe it.

"Well," he thought, "that was easier than I expected. I should have tried this a long time ago."

He pulled the covers over his head, smiled to himself, and drifted back to sleep.

A little while later he woke to the wonderful smell of bacon and eggs drifting upstairs.

Now he was hungry.

He got dressed, walked downstairs, and headed toward his usual place at the breakfast table.

Before he could sit down, his mother looked up and said,

"Oh, no. You can't eat breakfast."

The boy stared at her.

"Why not?"

"Because," she replied matter-of-factly, "it's a terrible day. People who are having terrible days stay in bed. Now go back upstairs."

He started to protest.

She simply pointed toward the stairs.

Back upstairs he went.

A few minutes later she came into his room carrying a plate with a single slice of plain white bread and a glass of water. She placed them on the bedside table, smiled politely, and left without another word.

At lunchtime the same thing happened.

One slice of bread.

One glass of water.

Back to bed.

At dinner...

One slice of bread.

One glass of water.

Back to bed.

Every time he tried to come downstairs, his mother would stop him.

"You can't come down. Remember? It's a terrible day."

So he spent the entire day in his bedroom while the rest of the family went on with life.

The next morning, right on schedule, at exactly five o'clock, his bedroom door opened.

His mother smiled as brightly as ever.

"Good morning! It's time to get up. It's a wonderful day!"

Before she could say another word, the boy threw back the covers, jumped out of bed, and declared,

"Mom, you're absolutely right! It IS a wonderful day!"

The moral of the story is: It's not what happens to you in life, but what happens in you that makes any real difference.

The point of that little parable is simple.

More often than not, what makes a day wonderful or terrible is not the circumstances themselves, but the attitude we bring to them. The events of the day certainly matter, but they don't always determine the quality of our experience. Two people can live through exactly the same situation and walk away with completely different perspectives.

Now, let me be clear. I'm not suggesting that bad things don't happen. They do. There are times when we face genuine loss, disappointment, illness, injustice, or grief. Those experiences are real, and they deserve our attention. They aren't problems to be ignored or explained away with positive thinking.

But here's what I've discovered over the years: the truly difficult moments in life are much less common than the ordinary frustrations that have a way of stealing our joy.

Maybe we wake up in a bad mood. Someone says something that rubs us the wrong way. Traffic is backed up. The computer crashes. We have an unpleasant conversation at work, or our plans fall apart. By themselves, none of those things may be life-changing. Yet if we're not careful, they can color everything else that happens that day. Before long, we've convinced ourselves we're having a terrible day.

The reality is that one unpleasant moment doesn't have to define the entire day.

Even when we are facing something genuinely painful, it doesn't have to blind us to everything that is still good in our lives. We can grieve and still be grateful. We can struggle and still experience moments of joy. We can face difficult circumstances without allowing them to become the only thing we see.

That's one of the gifts of spiritual awareness. It helps us keep life's difficulties in perspective. Instead of allowing one problem to overshadow everything else, we begin to recognize that even in the hardest seasons, there are still reasons for hope, people who care about us, blessings to be thankful for, and a God who has not abandoned us.

Our circumstances may not change overnight, but our attitude can. And very often, that's where a better day begins.

Principle #3 - Your Spiritual Attitude Will Help Determine, to a Great Extent, Your Relationship with Other People.

So, what does all of this have to do with our relationships?

Actually, everything.

When I talk about relationships, I'm talking about every important connection we have in life—our marriages, our families, our friendships, our relationships with our children and parents, the people we work with, our neighbors, and even the brief encounters we have with strangers throughout the day.

Every one of those relationships is influenced by the spiritual attitude we bring into it.

Think about it for a moment. Have you ever noticed how one person's attitude can completely change the atmosphere in a room? One person walks in angry or critical, and everyone feels the tension. Another person walks in with kindness, patience, and genuine interest in others, and the whole atmosphere changes.

That's the spiritual dynamic at work.

Healthy, life-giving relationships are built on much more than good communication skills or compatible personalities. Those things certainly help, but they aren't enough by themselves. At their deepest level, healthy relationships are sustained by a spiritual awareness that enables us to see other people not simply for what they do, but for who they are.

So what does that spiritual awareness look like?

This is where I'd like to talk honestly about God. And when I say God, I'm referring to God in whatever way you have come to know, experience, or understand the Divine.

Over the years, I've become convinced that God created us for one fundamental purpose: to be loved.

Before we ever accomplish anything, before we earn anyone's approval, before we prove our worth to the world, we are first and foremost the recipients of God's love. We are, in a very real sense, the products of that love.

And that changes everything.

When we know ourselves to be loved, we become capable of loving in return. We begin to love God more deeply, appreciate the beauty of creation more fully, and perhaps most importantly, love the people around us with greater patience, compassion, and generosity.

In other words, healthy relationships don't begin with learning to love other people. They begin by recognizing that we have already been loved. Everything else grows out of that reality.

The opening chapters in the Hebrew book of Genesis paint a beautiful picture of who we are and why we're here.

Unlike the rest of creation, which comes into being simply because God speaks it into existence, human beings are created in a deeply personal way. God forms the first human from the dust of the earth and then breathes into that human the breath of life. It's an intimate image that reminds us we are more than biological creatures. We carry within us the very breath of God.

Then comes another remarkable moment. God says, "It is not good for the human to be alone." The second human is created, not as an afterthought or as someone less important, but as a partner who shares the same divine image and the same gift of life.

From the very beginning, the story teaches us something important.

We were created for relationships.

We were created to live in relationship with God, with one another, and with the whole created world.

To me, that's one of the most important truths of life.

Because we are created in God's image, we are meant to reflect God's nature. And if God is, at God's very essence, creative, life-giving, and loving, then our lives are meant to reflect that same creative and sustaining love. We are created to receive God's love and then allow that love to flow through us into the lives of others.

That's why so many people spend their lives asking, "Why am I here? What's my purpose?"

I think Genesis gives us a wonderfully simple answer.

We are here to live in loving relationship - with God, with other people, and with the whole of creation. We are here to grow into lives marked by joy, peace, wholeness, purpose, and compassion. And as we experience those gifts ourselves, we are called to help others experience them as well.

When that becomes our focus, something remarkable happens. We stop asking, "What can I get out of life?" and begin asking, "How can I contribute to the life of those around me?"

Life is not simply about achieving more, acquiring more, or protecting our own interests. We were never intended to live as isolated individuals. We were created to belong - to God, to one another, and to the world God loves.

And the healthier those relationships become, the more fully we become the people we were created to be.

Now, at this point, you may be thinking,

"If that's what God intended, why doesn't the world look more like that? Why is there so much anger, violence, division, hatred, fear, and suffering? If we were created for love and relationship, what happened?"

Those are good questions. In fact, they're some of the most important questions we can ask.

I believe the answer begins with what we've been talking about throughout this chapter - our spiritual attitude.

Remember the aviation illustration. Our spiritual attitude is the way we orient ourselves toward God, toward other people, and toward the purpose for which we were created. Every day we make choices about what we will focus on, what values will guide us, and what kind of people we are becoming.

When we lose that orientation, it's easy to become disconnected—from God, from one another, and even from our own deepest selves. Fear replaces trust. Self-interest overshadows compassion. We begin to see other people as obstacles, competitors, or even enemies instead of fellow human beings worthy of love and respect.

But when we intentionally orient our lives toward God and toward the values of love, integrity, compassion, forgiveness, and courage, something very different begins to happen. We may not change the whole world overnight, but we do change the small corner of the world we touch every day.

That's where genuine spiritual growth begins.

Spiritual growth isn't just about learning more, believing the right things, or becoming more religious. It's about allowing our hearts, our attitudes, and our relationships to be shaped by the love that gave us life in the first place. As that happens, we become more fully the people God created us to be—and the people others need us to be.

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