Lord, Change My Attitude... Before it's too late!

I just finished this book today and I was so impressed with the entire thing. From the forward to the epilogue. James MacDonald is the author and a Pastor. His author voice is so relate-able. He talks about changing your wilderness attitude into a promised land attitude (referencing the Old Testament story about Moses bringing the Isrealites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land). How do you do this, you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked because he creatively ties every chapter into the next. For example: chapter one-replace a complaining attitude...chapter two-with a thankful attitude, 3/4- replace a covetous attitude with an attitude of contentment, 5/6- replace a critical attitude with an attitude of love, 7/8- replace a doubting attitude with an attitude of faith, 9/10- replace a rebellious attitude with an attitude of submission. Pretty great stuff, huh? It's longer than the books I've been reading, but totally worth reading again. If you flipped through my copy you would find lots of high lighting and underlining. I'm sure once I read it again I will have more to mark. It was truly an eye opening book that just totally called me out! We all struggle with attitude problems and can find things to assign fault or blame, but why? Why, when something so much greater is waiting for us once we get over our attitudes? My eyes are opened! A must read!

Disciplines of a Godly Woman

For the past couple of months or so, our church has been selling (what they call) the "book of the month." I have never been a person who considers reading a recreational enjoyment. I've basically been in the habit of reading for educational purposes. Ways of saving money, parenting tips, house renovations, textbooks for class, etc. For the past couple of months or so I have become increasingly interested in coupling my bible reading with my school books and adding one one more book for enjoyment.

I just finished "Disciplines of a Godly Woman" by Barbara Hughes, this morning. I have never been so convicted yet encouraged by a stranger through the words on a page.

In a very brief summary of the life changing principles written in between the title page and the reference page, she touches on the soul, character, relationships, ministry and grace. She goes into detail about the disciplines of the gospel, submission, prayer, worship, mind, contentment, propriety, perseverance, church, singleness, marriage, nurturing, good deeds, witness, giving and discipline. Sounds like a long list, huh? She carefully and gently lists the things we are called to do and be like according to God's Word.

She closes with this quote pertaining to God's never ending grace:

When we have exhausted our store of endurance.
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done;
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth and giveth again

-ANNIE JOHNSON FLINT

Mere Christianity

A little bit of a vocab lesson (and by saying the word "lesson" understand that I don't think that I'm teaching you something you don't already know) according to my marketing class:

Attitude- a consistent evaluation, positive or negative, about people, places or things
Motivation-a need that causes action
Satisfiers-factors that meet needs
Learning-a change in behavior due to past experiences

I'm reading a book I was given as a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I'm sure you've heard of it, it's one of the biggies. I grew up with Christian morals and standards as a child. It was the pillar of my upbringing. I have always believed that if you stand firm on something that you were told to believe then you aren't standing firm at all, you need to experience it for yourself. Make it your own. Know exactly why it is you believe what you do... not just because mommy said so. While reading this book I've been very motivated to share it with other people, I'm learning a lot and it's creating a new perspective and a new attitude on why my faith meets my needs... I've spent a good amount of time trying to run away from the path that God has for my life. Faith and Grace pull me back in, every time. I've been doing a lot of reading and researching. Equipping, if you will. I want to understand why I feel what I feel. I'm the halfway person, you know.. there's the person that is ok with just "that feeling" and basing their faith on that, these people don't need proof. Truth is truth and that's the end of the story.. Others need facts and dates and history.. more of an intellectual ground to stomp on. I'm inbetween the two. I always have been. 'Mere Christianity' is a very logical way of looking at the Christian faith. I have been challenged, humbled and convicted by this book. C.S. Lewis is brilliant. Here's a few quotes I've underlined, so far.. (I'm only 150 pages in)

~"Strictly speaking, there are no such thing as good and bad impulses. Think once again of a piano. It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the "right" notes and the "wrong" ones. Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another. The Moral Law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts."

~"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that-and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison- you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you"

~"To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God"

~"Charity means 'Love, in a Christian sense.' But love in a Christian sense does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people."

~"We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means-the only complete realist."

~"And what matters is the nature of the change in itself, not how we feel while is is happening. It is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anythings for ourselves and leave it to God."

I can't wait to finish this book, undoubtedly, with a new fresh perspective on Christianity.