Image provided by blog.metal-pages.com

I was thinking this morning about the differences between an optimistic view and a pessimistic view.  On a cold and cloudy day like today, it is very easy to lean much more toward the pessimistic side of thought.  As I walked outside this morning, I was thinking, “Not another day of this cold wind and freezing temperatures!”  I know that I have been complaining to anyone who will listen (and even those who fake listening) about how tired I am of winter.  So I would have to say that my viewpoint this morning has definitely been on the “half empty glass” side of things.

Yet, my thoughts betrayed me as I sat at my desk this morning.  I began to think about how close we are to the month of March.  I began thinking about the fact that March 20 is the “official” day of spring. Even though the weather does not always reflect this spring date, we are leaning much closer to warmer weather, thawing, greening grass and more sunshine.  When I looked at this in comparison to November 20, I realized that the end of winter is close at hand.

Once my thoughts shifted toward the more optimistic or positive side, I found my attitude and spirit lifting.  I realized that whenever I am dwelling on the negative aspects of life, I lose energy, focus, and feel very weighed down.  When I am able to shift towards the positive side, all of that goes in the opposite direction.

So I would like to challenge each of you to spend the day monitoring if you are looking at things from a half-full glass approach or a half-empty glass approach.  If you find yourself on the half-empty side, work at moving over to the half-full side.  I would suspect that you will find yourself much more energized if you do so.

Image provided by eatwell101.com

Recently I was at one of my favorite coffee locations.  The person behind the counter was doing some prep work for an item they would be selling during the lunch time.  He was cutting up onions for whatever he was preparing.  In a relatively short time, the onion smell began to permeate the who place.  My eyes started to become irritated and all I could seem to smell was onion.  This experience led me to think this morning about what it means to permeate.

I think that we have the opportunity to permeate the lives around us.  The question is with what would we permeate those lives.  As a believer, I feel that one item I have to share is my belief.  Many times throughout a given day, I can share my belief with others.  There are many different ways to approach this but I think the best way is to do this sharing without words most of the time.  The way that I live my life and the manner in which I interact with others is at least a starting point for sharing my belief. When others view my life and interactions, it should lead them to see something different and then ask me about it.  Given that opportunity, words could then come into play.

I think that another way we can permeate the lives around us is in our attitude.  I have blogged before about the impact attitude can have.  A negative attitude can permeate a room and have the effect similar to the onion in the coffee shop.  It can cause irritation and be disruptive.  An attitude of joy, or a positive attitude, can feel the room in an uplifting manner.  This attitude can bring pleasure into the lives of others.

So today, I would challenge all my readers to think about permeating the world and people around you.  With what are you permeating your surroundings?

Today as I was looking out my office window, I realized that something I have hoped for over the past few weeks has occurred — the trees now have leaves in their fullness.  For me this is significant because it means that spring might really be here and that instead of looking at grey, barren trees, I see green and in one case, maple brown leaves.  I love the color so much better!

This led me to another thought about the importance and value of a tree putting out leaves.  By doing this, it means that the tree is alive and ready to capture the ultraviolet rays of the sun which helps it produce the nutrients necessary for its survival.  If the tree does not burst forth with new leaves in the spring, we know that the tree is dead and should be cut down.

These thoughts then directed me toward this passage from the Bible:

“The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”  (Matthew 3:10, NIV)

Jesus was speaking about the need for followers to produce positive benefits for those around them.  He was being critical of the religious leadership of the Jewish people.  He felt that the leaders were not producing positive benefits for the people nor were they helping others to discover God.

So today, the trees remind me of the importance of producing positive benefits for the people who the Lord places in my life.  I need to work at enhancing their lives in the way which I can.  I need to help others discover God for themselves.  This is something which each of us can do, we have been given what is needed.  We just need to produce.

Image courtesy of tinybuddha.com

I have been giving thought lately about the various lives that I have the privilege of interacting in each day.  Some of these interactions are planned, some are expected, and some are completely unexpected.  These interactions range from business related to personal.  The length of time of each interaction also varies.  When I take inventory of one day’s interactions, I am often amazed at the number.  Being an extrovert in most situations, I am not sure if the number of interactions is high or just the norm.

Today, I decided that I needed to make a new commitment in regards to these interactions.  The new commitment that I have chosen to make is that I will strive to make sure at least one of these individuals would feel built up because of her/his interaction with me.  This will require from me the time to gain understanding into what is happening in the person’s life so that I can do something to build the person up.

Now, on the surface this seems to be a bit trivial.  However, it is like the folk store about the man who was on the beach and was throwing starfish who had become stranded on the beach back into the water.  A person came along and asked the man what he was doing.  When the man explained, the person said it was a worthless cause because the number of starfish which washed up was many and as soon as one was thrown back in, another would wash up.  So the man’s cause didn’t seem to matter.  But the man said that it mattered to the one that he threw back in.

So the effort isn’t trivial and it does matter.  At least it matters to the one person a day that I try to build up.  I can’t help to think that if more people made this effort, it would matter to more people; more lives would be built up.  So why not give it a try.  Just one person a day.

Photo provided by nbry.wordpress.com

This has already been quite a winter.  Lately there seems to be at least one day every week when driving a car can be treacherous because the weather brings conditions that make the roads dangerous.  The news seems to carry a story of a multi-car pile up due to chain reaction accidents.  But it is not always just in driving an automobile that chain reactions can occur in life.

I was considering this morning how events in our lives can cause chain reactions with other people.  Sometimes an event can lead us in a direction either positively or negatively.  When we encounter other people, that event and our reaction to it can impact the way that we interact with other individuals.  We can easily impact the mood of that other person because of our mood and then the other individuals can impact the moods of others whom they encounter and it goes on and on which is the type of chain reaction to which I am referring.  Again, this can be a positive chain reaction or it can be a negative chain reaction.

All of this has led me to issue a warning to myself, and maybe others, PROCEED WITH CAUTION.  Just as caution must be used when navigating on icy or snow-covered roadways, we need to use caution in regards to how we interact with others.  Of course, there is value in causing a positive chain reaction.  There is little to no value in causing negative chain reactions.  Our moods are what they are going to be and we can sometimes work hard to move ourselves from a negative mood to a positive mood.  However, when we find ourselves in a negative mood, we can strive to not begin a negative chain reaction as we encounter others.