Attitude
In Proverbs 22:6 the Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go….” And in Ephesians 4:29 we are told not to let any unwholesome language come out of our mouths but only what is useful to edify or build up those who are listening. In Hebrews 10:24 we are told to, “…provoke one another unto love and to good works.” When we think about training, when we think about building up, when we think about provoking we normally think about actions or words. Those things are necessary but there is another ingredient that we don’t want to leave out.
I shared in a devotional a few days ago about my pet crow that I raised and taught to fly. Interesting thing about my crow, he had a great dislike for my sister. Whenever she would come outside the crow would immediately dive bomb on her head trying to land and peck her. Of course, my sister had a strong dislike for the crow as well. I enjoyed it because at that young age I had a strong dislike for my sister and she didn’t care much for me. How did the crow know to dislike my sister? I believe he simply picked up on my attitude toward her.
If a crow can pick up on a human’s attitude toward another person how much more so should another person be able to know our attitude toward others. I believe part of training up a child must be our attitude about all of life. Part of the building up of others may be our attitude toward things when we are around them. Part of provoking one another unto love and good works may be our loving attitude that they can sense when they are near us. How is our attitude? Have we been dive bombing anything lately?
(What kind of attitude do you have? It makes a difference.)