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Do You Act or React?
Do you act, or do you react? Many people live their whole lives reacting. There are a few have learned a big secret to being who they want to be. They choose to act instead of react. They choose that no matter what happens, they want to act with kindness and love to everyone even when they are being harmed. They choose to be polite even when everyone else is being impolite to them. They choose to be calm even when everyone else is angry and yelling horrible words.
It is hard to keep a happy attitude when things go wrong, and you lose everything that is dear to you. Sometimes a fire destroys everything you have worked hard for. You stand there and look at the ashes and feel like it was a big waste of years of work. A flood of water can also destroy all your belongings. Maybe you have a mom and dad living in two different homes and feel their anger all the time. Perhaps there is yelling and anger in your own home. How do you feel? You do not have to be angry too. You can have a peace inside of you. When someone close to you dies, you feel like most of your life is gone too. Some people I know lived near a volcano and it almost killed them when it destroyed all that they owned. They had an attitude of joy that they were still alive. They also wanted a deeper experience with God for they saw that His love lasts forever. Nothing else does. In this section, the focus is on people trapped in prison because they loved God. Let us look at how they felt and acted when stuck in a dark hole and everything looked hopeless. There is a secret to having this same attitude of those locked in prison because of their faithfulness to God. The secret is being forever friends with God in heaven.
Those who are successful at acting instead of reacting are those who believe the promise Philippians 4:19 "My God shall supply all your needs." Here is another promise that helps one to act instead of react. Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose."
This section of stories illustrate some unusual men who give examples of attitudes in prison that are amazing. Imagine yourself in the smelly underground or dark holes these people were put in and think about how you might have felt.
To go to the first page in the Attitudes section click here. Jeremiah's attitude while thrown into the sewer for delivering messages from God.
In this section you will find amazing attitudes even when terrible things were happening. Some of these are Jeremiah in sewer, Joseph almost killed by brothers, Abigail married to a selfish husband, and others. Start with Jeremiah and you will see buttons for others. If you press the "home button" it will take you back to the menu again.
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