Recently the driver side door in my car started to make some odd noises, like something was rattling inside. It got progressively louder until I thought the door would fall off its hinges. Time to get it checked out. Click here to listen to this message.

The morning that I was to take it to the mechanic, I woke up early and headed to the parking lot. I put the key into the ignition and…crickets. Literally. Not a sound. Repeated tries resulted in more of the same. A call to AAA and within the hour, I had the diagnosis: dead battery. Deader than dead.

Now in addition to fixing my door, a new battery would on the list.  All of this happened BC (before coffee) and so it would be understandable (acceptable?) for me to not handle this well. However, I was surprisingly calm and I even had to chuckle a bit. On the way to the “doctor,” my car gets “sicker!”

I have been listening to a lot of messages on the topic of attitude. How we act when life goes awry. Here’s what I’m learning:

• The circumstances in our lives don’t make us who we are but rather reveal who we already are.
• Our attitude is a result of our thought life. Good thoughts? Good attitude. And vice versa.

Think about it. When something bad happens, do we freak out? Do we laugh? Our response is a window into who we really are. If we panic, it likely means we have some anxiety going on. If we laugh, we can chalk up the particular hiccup as part of life and move on.

I love this quote from Joyce Meyer: “Our attitude is our thought life turned inside out.”

It’s so true! Whatever we are thinking about shows up in our words and in our actions. What’s on the inside eventually makes its way to the outside.

“For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45 NKJV)

So the real question is – what are we thinking about? What are we focused on?

I could’ve chosen to get upset about the dead battery, but I chose to focus on God’s goodness. How? Well, just the day before I was out and about and did not get stuck anywhere. God protected me.

Also, since I already had an appointment with the mechanic, I could get the battery replaced and the door fixed all at once. God provided for me.

I could’ve chosen to let the devil steal my joy (John 10:10), but I didn’t. I actually laughed at the whole situation. The enemy was trying to stop me from doing what needed to be done, but God had a better plan.

Life is always going to go awry.  Jesus told us that we would have trials and tribulations. But He also told us what we are to do when life’s hiccups threaten our sanity: Cheer up!

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you ^]will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Now to be clear, this is not saying to be happy about sour circumstances but rather be happy that we serve a God who protects and provides for us during every twist, turn, rattle, and dead battery. The old saying “attitude is everything” is so true.

Change your thoughts and you change your attitude. Change your attitude and you change your life.