“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. ‘Eat and drink!’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you.”

— Proverbs 23:7

A student of flying was taking his first solo flight. All went well until he had to land his plane. Suddenly, he heard a voice over the radio saying, “Correct your attitude.” He thought to himself, “My attitude? My attitude is just fine.” Because the student didn’t heed his flight instructor’s warning, he crashed his plane.

After the crash, his instructor showed him this definition for “attitude” in the flight manual: “the plane’s inclination toward the earth.”

Our inclination toward life can destroy us or make us successful. Why? Because our attitudes affect our relationships with others, with ourselves, and with God. Chuck Swindoll, a popular radio preacher, once said, “I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me, and ninety percent how I react to it.”

A young lady once came to her pastor with a problem. She said, “I have the meanest, orneriest, most foul-mouthed father-in-law you’ve ever seen, and he lives with us. Whenever he gets mad, he curses me. I have not been a Christian very long, and I’ve got a temper of my own. I’m about ready to let him have it. What can I do?”

The pastor asked, “What does he like to eat?”

She replied, “Fudge. He likes fudge.”

The pastor said, “The next time he curses you, fix him some fudge.”

About a week later, the father-in-law was sitting in the kitchen when the young lady accidentally splashed some hot food on him. He began cursing her. However, she remained calm, prepared some fudge, and handed it to him. At first, he just looked at it. But after a while, a big tear dripped off his cheek and splashed onto the plate of fudge. Then he put his arms around his daughter-in-law and said, “Daughter, I want you to forgive a mean, ugly, old man.” This woman had the joy of leading her angry, ornery father-in-law to the Lord right there in her kitchen. Why? Because she exhibited a loving attitude.

Do you need to correct your attitude today? Change your attitude, and you can change your world.

“A man’s life is what his thoughts make it.”
Marcus Aurelius