Scottie attitude

I’ve been working on the computer for about an hour. I see a black Scottie pushing his ball with his nose toward my feet. It’s Chewy, he’s telling me it’s time to take a break and play ball with him.

If you came to my house you would immediately know which Scottie is Chewy. He’s the one whose tail is always wagging. He was starved and abused in his former home, but it took no time at all for him to be cheerful; wagging his tail and wanting to play ball a lot with his new family. What an attitude!

Years ago, when I was working as a motivational speaker and corporate trainer, one day I met a young man in his early 20s at a photocopy shop in Portland. He was in a wheelchair trying to make copies and it was obvious his hands didn’t work well. I stepped over to help him and we began to talk.

He had been in a car accident during his senior year in high school. He’d been with a group of fellow students drinking and driving fast. The car flipped and he was thrown out. He ended up a legal quadriplegic.

After spending several years learning how to deal with his disabilities, he was now trying to become a motivational speaker. He wanted to warn young people about the dangers of drinking and driving, and he believed his condition was a good way to get their attention.

God had obviously put us together that day. The more we talked the more I realized that I could help him. Over the next year I assisted him with developing his speaking presentation style. We established program topics and marketing materials. We targeted him toward colleges and universities. I knew they had money to pay speakers like him.

He was an amazing inspiration with an important story for students. He began to get bookings and became so busy that we eventually lost touch. Like Chewy, he had risen above his difficult circumstances and made more of himself than anyone had expected.

Some people like to say, “We are what we eat.” The truth is that we are what we think.

Christ taught that message, but I’m sometimes surprised how many people, who call themselves followers of Christ, don’t remember he taught us to think positively, all the time, not just some of the time. The Truth in Christianity is all about positive thinking. The deep message from Christ is to change how you think and bring your heart closer to God, which will change your world outlook. That new perspective will then change your actions. This is the basic formula I used as a motivational speaker. Unfortunately, because I spoke to business and government agencies, I was never able to add anything about God. God’s power and energy greatly improves one’s results with this recipe.

Attitude is everything. Be like Chewy, smile at the world all the time and your life will be much better.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.

Philippians 4:8