Attitude Adjustment

It is snowing again.  The weather has been zigzagging between snow and mud.  One day there will be an abundance of mud with a few little sprouts of crocus and daffodils trying to poke their way through the ground, and the next an abundance of white fluffy snow on the ground, car, and the roads.  After a week or so of this, one tends to get tired of the weather changes- and hope for spring fervently.  Some even get angry and complain about the horrid inconveniences of the weather- it’s too hot or cold, I hate the snow or mud- though in the beginning of the winter loved the sight of the beautiful snow blanket that graced the fields or the glittery ice that covered the branches and shone in the sunlight.  Though with a slight attitude adjustment we may realize that the changing weather is perfect for the people making maple syrup, and the warm days a farmer can plant his onions and on the cooler days they will be dusted with light snow “poor man’s fertilizer”.

Manna from heaven- all you have to do is walk outside your tent and gather enough for the day- with the reassurance that you would be fed again tomorrow as well.  Psalms 105:40 calls manna the “bread of heaven”.  Numbers 11:4 states that “the rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.  But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”  Yikes- listening to the rabble and remembering the past won’t do an attitude any good.  How many times have we heard negative comments that after a while sunk into your hearts, or looked back in the past with longing- Lot’s wife didn’t have a good time of it- and neither will we(Genesis 19:26).

Ephesians 4:17-23  So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.  You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.  Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.  You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:29-30  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

So- we have a choice- we can either listen to the “rabble” in their darkened understanding and complain about our lot- or we can change our attitude by renewing our minds and not take for granted the good things that the Lord is doing in the weather and in our lives.