Yesterday I wrote about having a “baditude,” which is a conjunction for bad attitude. I wrote that while we don’t have total control over our circumstances, we do have control over how we respond. Nothing gives us a baditude; we choose to have a baditude.
I wrote about baditudes because I was speaking about baditudes at youth group this week. On Tuesday night I shared with our high school students about baditudes and last night I shared with our junior high students. As I was sharing with our junior high students, though, I realized that I was talking to myself as much as I was to our students.
I was having a bad day yesterday. Nothing terrible happened; I was just in a bit of a funk. I didn’t get that much sleep the night before and I hate when the days get shorter. The combination of those circumstances and perhaps a general malaise had really put me in a bad mood. I was grumpy, unmotivated and not feeling that great. I had a baditude.
But I heard God speaking to me as I was giving my lesson to the junior high students. I was telling them how we choose to have baditudes. And when we choose to have baditudes we’re ignoring all of the ways that God blesses us. As the words were coming out of my mouth, I realized that I had made that very choice. I wasn’t having the best day so I chose to have a baditude and ignore all of the ways that God has and is working in my life.
I love and hate when God speaks to me while I’m teaching. I hate it because I think that if I’m teaching something then I should have it all figured out. I love it, though, because it really gives God a direct line to my head and heart. If I’m presuming to tell our students to choose good attitudes and recognize God’s work in their lives, then I very well can’t choose a bad attitude and ignore how God is working.
Hopefully I’ll continue to learn the lesson I was teaching our students and God was teaching me. I don’t like being around people with baditudes and I definitely don’t want to be that kind of person.
Unless of course that person is choosing to have a baditude because of how Brett Ratner ruined X-Men 3.
What gives God a direct line to your head and heart?
Hope today will be a better one for you!
Thanks!