The Relearning

"Attitude is everything." Growing up, I heard this all the time. Most of the time I just shrugged or scoffed in response. I realize the truth in this statement more and more each day. Last week, it became painfully clear over breakfast with my director that I needed a little lesson on the importance of attitude. Not the time for lessons to become painfully clear. After telling me that he is in the process of recruiting another college grad to join the team this summer, he asked, "What advice would you give to a recent grad about to start his/her first job?" I sat there for a moment, completely unprepared for that question. I thought about my job and how frustrated I have been these past couple months, driving hundreds of miles each week through MS and AL, working tirelessly on sales and customer relationships and then watching them slip through my fingers. I tried to muster up something positive to say. Finally, I responded, not knowing how tactful or truthful my words would be.

At that moment, I taught myself a lesson I needed to relearn: each experience, each day, each conversation, each meeting is an opportunity (and a gift!). You decide how you are going to receive that opportunity and what you are going to make of it. I look back and think about all the opportunities devastated by my poor attitude and lack of enthusiasm and it makes me hurt. My job is such an incredible opportunity to build business skills, share the Gospel, and develop my gifts and passions (and accrue Hilton Honors points), and I have squandered it these past couple months. I am ungrateful and failed to make the most of what's in front of me, longing for something else. It saddens me to think of how I wasted what the Lord graciously gives to me and not received them with gratitude or joy.

Another lesson that I have learned again and again this past year is that each morning must be a reteaching of all that our head and our hearts forget. Some days, I am amazed at how quickly I abandon the beauty and truth of the Gospel. As my pastor noted, "It feels like all the truth of God's love written on our hearts is actually scratched on sand." It's true. Anxiety, fear, a bad day, frustration, and the truth in our hearts is gone. Man is exactly how the Bible describes us - foolish, hard hearted, and distracted. We must live life in expectation that we will forget spiritual truth all the time. Therefore, we must read, hear, affirm, and tell of Jesus' love often so that our hearts do not forget. Repetition is the answer to our forgetful spiritual lives. I must begin each day with a reorienting and a retelling.