Being in the ministry for 33 plus years has afforded me the opportunity to sit through thousands of meetings. Some of those meetings have been church centered, and some have been community centered. Regardless of the arena, the one thing that absolutely stands out in my memory is the power of an attitude.

No matter how many positive attitudes are present at the gathering, it only takes one negative attitude to infiltrate the whole process. That's a lot of power. I've seen very good people turn away from churches, jobs, families, etc., because they didn't want to constantly deal with negativity.

There is a picture of Jesus that I absolutely love. It's entitled "Jesus By The Sea" and it shows Jesus laughing. We were created for a relationship with Him, and as such, He expects that we'll experience joy, laughter, fun, and a whole host of things that will create a positive attitude in us. With the promise of Heaven we have a lot to feel positive about. The next time you're about to exhibit negativity, try to stop yourself, refocus on the positive, and see what kind of outcome you get. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.