AttitudeSample

What Is an Attitude?

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had ... Romans 15:5 NIV

Have you ever noticed how one bad thing can ruin your whole day? Maybe your phone didn’t charge overnight, or your boss blamed you for a mistake you didn’t make. Or maybe you just woke up grumpy and you don’t know why. How we respond in these situations is largely determined by our attitude.

Our attitude is our response to someone or something, and it’s influenced by how we think, feel, and act.

It’s not always easy to know what the right attitude should look like, especially when we’re in the middle of difficult circumstances. So how do we improve our attitudes over time?

For a moment, imagine a fishbowl. You’ve been given a fish, and the water it’s living in is dirty. Obviously, you would want to dump the dirty water and add clean water. However, if that’s all you did, your fish's water would soon be dirty again. You would also want to scrub the whole bowl to remove the algae and waste. Then you’d fill the bowl with fresh, clean water and return your fish to its now healthier home.

Sometimes our attitudes can be like dirty fishbowls. We may need to clean out some old or harmful ways of thinking as we’re refreshed with what Romans 15 refers to as the “mind of Christ.”

This week, we’ll explore Scriptures, stories, and prayers that shine a spotlight on the mind of Christ and teach us how to be formed by it. Let’s do this!