Do you need "Mental Floss?"

Kim and I took a little break the past two days and attended the Joyce Meyer "Love Live" Conference in St. Louis. What a spectacular event that was! Approximately 16,900 women and 100 men from 50 states and 20-some countries traveled to hear inspiring worship and life-changing messages from Joyce Meyer, John C. Maxwell, and more.

Friday morning we were blessed to hear from John C. Maxwell on the power of our attitudes. John says that the greatest gap between successful people and unsuccessful people is how you think. Just like we use dental floss to take the junk out of our teeth, most of us need "mental floss" to take the junk out of our minds.

John pointed out 4 things we need in order to have a good attitude:

1. We need to possess a teachable spirit. John regaled us with a great story of how, when he was a senior pastor, he wrote a sermon that was intended to "shake a finger" at his congregation, who had begun murmuring against him after a quick decision he had made. He was very excited to preach it and quipped, "sometimes you don't even need God's help to write a sermon," and, "this can't wait for Sunday." When he shared his sermon with his wife, however, she said, "that sermon is for you." He preached the sermon the best he could, and then the leaders of his church laid hands on him and peace was restored to his church family. John said that although he absolutely loves teaching on leadership, he is the hardest person to lead. We need to allow God and others to speak into our lives -we need to receive and apply instruction.

2. We need to take responsibility for our attitude. It's no one else's job. John said that motivation does not strike like lightening, but it is a byproduct of "just doing it." We need to act ourselves into feeling like we want to feel.

3. We need to travel the high road. This means to think on good things as Philippians 4:8 instructs us to do, and treat each other as Christ would. There are three roads we can take:

a.) The low road, where we treat others worse than we would treat ourselves
b.) The middle road, where we treat others the same as we would treat ourselves
c.) the high road, where we treat others better than we treat ourselves.

4. We need to understand the value of every attitude. Good or bad, it really makes an impact on EVERY aspect of your life. If your mind is full of "stinkin thinkin," the chances are you are not going to find the results you desire in life. If you have a positive, hopeful attitude, you just might be surprised how it impacts your relationships, present and future ones, that is!

CLICK HERE to watch part of John C. Maxwell's message.

~ Linda
Cache' Connections