Attitude Is What? Everythng?

The definition of attitude in The New Oxford American is: - a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior. Another entry reads - the orientation of an aircraft relative to the direction of travel; and another reads - a position of the body proper to or implying an action or mental state.

We borrowed the idea from the French and Italian languages where it meant 'fitness or posture'. These languages are Latin based which brings us to the word aptus meaning 'fit'.

Posturing is behaving in such a way that is intended to impress or mislead.  Or you could say , being deceptive in ones attitude.

Our American understanding of attitude is the anger, frustration, facial expression, and body language that is manifested to a person or because of a circumstance. But attitude goes deeper than this. Our attitude is our positioning, our posturing, our fitting ourselves to life and its circumstances, philosophies and people.

How do you position yourself to your: spouse, authorities, children, parents, friends, enemies, fellowman, problems, employment, responsibilities, blessings. Are you taking an adversarial stance? Are you in a position to exit your relationships, responsibilities or your faith? Are you a friend or a servant? Are you a critic or do you bring healing? Are you an inspiration (not the singers)? are you an over comer or an under achiever? Step back from the person or situation in question and ask; in relation to this what position am I in - what am I ready to do. That is your attitude and it bleeds over into your actions. It also affects how others perceive you.

Rather than saying, that person has a bad attitude; we might just as well say, that person hasn't positioned himself very well to this situation or in respect to that person. I think attitude has more to do with preparation than with circumstance. How do you prepare for work? Before you meet your spouse, do you condition your thinking in order to meet him/her properly? When you enter the life of your children are you prepared?  Have you sat down and considered the troubles that are typical to your age, gender, race, occupation and faith to determine how you will act when those situations arise? What you are doing here is creating an attitude or positioning yourself  for future events so you can be prepared.

How can we do this?

The raw meaning of the word orient is the Latin 'oriri' or to rise. This refers to the sun rising in the East. The word orientation means to face east. We use this word to describe our position relative to someone or some object. When we go to an orientation we hear information that allows us to face the same direction as the people in charge.

But why the East?

The sun rises in the East. The wise men saw The Star in the East which led them to Christ. The Gospel traveled from the East. And when Christ comes back to set up his kingdom he will split the eastern sky with a blinding light. Does this give you an idea of the person or object we could use to position ourselves? Our attitude can be set in relativity to Christ and His words.

If you are positioned toward Christ, how would that effect your marriage, children, friendships, actions, occupation or anything that makes up your life? How are you positioned relative to Christ and His words?This is a question that I have to ask myself often. I am constantly having to adjust my attitude just like the pilot in his plane.

It was nice chatting with you,
John