CULTIVATE

Now the parable is this: The SEED is the WORD of GOD – Lk.8:11

Attitudes are habits of thoughts and actions that can be acquired and cultivated. One of the fundamental things that every person who wants to improve his or her life should work on is his or her attitude. Your attitude determines so much about how you will live and how far you will go in life. God's Word and the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit make all the difference. God has come to make His dwelling place in His people through His Spirit. Christ lives His Life in and through us; hence the seeds of godly and positive attitudes are resident in us, waiting to be cultivated and nurtured. You can cultivate the right attitudes in your life by submitting to Him for the renewal and transformation of your mind. You can, for example, decide to become your very best in God, cultivate the attitude of excellence, and discipline yourself until you achieve it. You can accentuate the positive and nullify the negative. You can fast from fears and feed on faith.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper. He helps us to cultivate: attitudes of Joy and rejoicing; a smiling countenance; positive outlook to life; and a spirit of optimism. He teaches us to approach life with faith – access, boldness, and confidence (Eph.3:12). Under His tutelage, you can learn to not waste time complaining about the present, pondering the past or fretting about the future. Even when you are surrounded by negative and pessimistic folk, you can cultivate a spirit of positivity and optimism. The world seems to be saturated with the epidemic of pessimism. It’s almost endemic. The news and social media feed gullible humanity with a steady and sour diet of negativity – bad news, bitterness, blame-games, character assassination, evil speaking, fault-finding, insults, and sarcasm. But those should not be strong enough to swallow your attitude of gratitude. Remember: attitude is a choice – Your Choice: each and every day that you arise, you have a choice on how you will view and interact with the world around you.

Cultivating your desired attitudes is like the sowing of seeds to reap the desired harvest: “the SEED is the Word of God” (Lk.8:11). Life will reward you most when you approach the world with a positive attitude. Such an attitude is not a product of genetics and heredity but, with personal preparation and proper training, an acquired trait. The best thing about your attitude is that if it’s bad, it can be made good, and even better. You have the power to choose and imbibe a positive attitude over a negative one. Rather than being a predisposition, attitude can be acquired, cultivated, and developed. You can alter your life by altering your attitudes of mind. You have the potential to improve the quality of your personal and professional life. You may not be able to alter your height or body type, but you can alter your attitude. You can develop and maintain a positive attitude; and turn attitude into action focus.

Your attitude should be an indication of where you desire to go in life and not a reflection of what you’ve been through. To cultivate is to begin to take personal responsibility for your attitudes: “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience (Lk.8:15). Receiving the seeds of God’s Word into the good ground of your heart, and patiently cultivating the same is key to an Excellent Attitude. To cultivate an attitude that helps you live life to its fullest, as you were designed to do, you must acknowledge and appreciate that your heart is the control centre for your attitude – it is the ground, the soil, on which the Seeds of the Word are planted. Your attitude is simply an outward reflection of what resides on the inside; the fruit from the seeds cultivated in your heart.