DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT MONDAY - ALWAYS SHOW A GENTLE ATTITUDE.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way. - Viktor Frankl, concentration camp survivor.

Tell them not to speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly, and always to show a gentle attitude toward everyone. Titus 3:2.

Monday mornings can be very difficult for some people, for various reasons, returning to our place of employment where there is conflict, going to a meeting with someone who is manipulative, having to confront a situation that was left unsolved, etc., but as Christians we need to heed the advice of the Apostle Paul, and always show a gentle attitude.

It is obvious from our text that we must not speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly. This is not as easy as it sounds, there will be circumstances and situations, where we will have to try real hard, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can achieve this. We must pray and ask Him to help us put Paul’s advice into practice, whatever the situation.

As well as praying, I thought that a few examples of people who have faced difficult situations would be helpful...

In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old "Candid Camera" reruns. It didn't take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain free sleep. Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of his victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world. - Today in the Word.
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Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation's deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do. - Steve Goodier.
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The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, "What are you doing?" The first replied, "I'm cutting stone for 10 shillings a day." The next answered, "I'm putting in 10 hours a day on this job." But the third said, "I'm helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London's greatest cathedrals." Source Unknown.
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A chaplain was speaking to a soldier on a cot in a hospital. "You have lost an arm in the great cause," he said. "No," said the soldier with a smile. "I didn't lose it--I gave it." In that same way, Jesus did not lose His life. He gave it purposefully. - Source Unknown.

Loving Father, help me by the power of the Holy Spirit, not to speak evil of anyone, but to be friendly and peaceful, and to always have a gentle attitude towards everyone. I thank you for this, and I praise the wonderful Name of my Lord and Saviour, who was the greatest example of a gentle attitude. Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY