Attitude is everything. How you look at things, how you feel, and how you interact with others is dictated by not only the attitude that you portray on the outside, but also by the attitude on your inside. We all make so many choices in life that sometimes we forget how much our attitude affects our day and our interactions with others. There was a talk in a recent General Conference where one of the apostles told us that we all need to slow down and just enjoy life. I think slowing down and enjoying life can also include taking the time to reflect on our lives, especially looking at our feelings, emotions, and our attitude.
Our attitude is not the only thing that affects our lives. The attitudes of others play a large role in our lives. We interact with people on a daily basis. You may understand someone and their attitude(s) a little better if you know them, but we all need to try to understand everyone just a little bit better. I know that sounds like a big task, understanding everyone. You’ll never understand everyone, sorry to say. But you can look at their actions and learn a lot about a person just by doing that.
Recently, I was watching the actions and attitudes of several members of my ward. We were doing a service project in connection with an organization called Good in the ‘Hood. On February 11th we went to and LDS chapel out in Sugarhouse. For FHE a few days prior we had decorated shoe boxes in plain white paper and plain pink paper. On Saturday we hosted a Valentine’s party for refugee children. We helped them decorate their boxes with stickers, glitter, crayons, and markers. Then they made valentines for their friends and passed them out. We also helped them decorate heart-shaped cookies with frosting and sprinkles. After all the children had finished with these activities, we took them outside to play soccer outside. We had a giant soccer ball and the kids loved it.
But, wait. I said I had been watching the actions and attitudes of my ward members. Why am I talking about these kids so much then? I wanted to get the details of the event out first, so that you would better understand as I explained what I had observed.
Oh, wait, I need to tell you just one more thing. I have been in this ward since September of 2011 and I had already been watching and observing some of the actions and attitudes of my ward members, whether it is at school (since most of us attend LDSBC) or at church. I want to focus on the change of actions and attitudes in the guys from my ward.
Yes, I guess I am stereotyping a bit by saying that I knew the girls were ecstatic to help with this activity. The only reason I bring that up? The girls showed outwardly and openly their excitement, even several weeks prior to the event. The guys barely showed any excitement; I felt like we might have to check to see if they still had a pulse. In my ward, no matter what the activity, the attitudes are generally the same. The girls are always excited to go to the activity and the guys are like rocks, showing little to no emotion about the activity (unless they absolutely despise the idea of the activity, then they may talk amongst themselves plotting a way to get out of it, but they usually end up coming).
So you know how the attitudes of the guys and girls in my ward are generally seen. Now let’s go back to the Valentine’s activity. We had a fair amount of drive time to get to the location of the church building in Sugarhouse. I drove over with a car full of girls and we all talked about how excited we were to be helping little kids celebrate Valentine’s Day. When we got to the church, most of the ward members were there already; we got lost so we were a little late.
When we walked into the gym, most of the guys still wore the attitude of ‘I’m here because this sounded like it might be fun, but I’m not so sure about that now.’ We distributed crayons, stickers, markers, and glitter onto the tables that were set up across the gym. Then it was game time. The kids would be here any minute now.
When the kids started walking in the doors, the guys took on new life. They all became like kids again. They instantly found their best friend, and it didn’t matter if it was a little boy who loved getting covered in mud or a little girl who wanted nothing more than to play dress-up and make believe all day. It was like kindergarten. They became insta-friends with that kid, and they spent the entire afternoon with them. Meanwhile, the girls from my ward ended up hanging out with two or three kids for the rest of the day.
I couldn’t help but smile all day because of the change in attitude that I saw in all the guys. Oh, wait, I forgot to mention how things went when the kids played soccer. We wanted it to mainly be the kids who went out and played, mainly so we wouldn’t get competitive and accidentally hurt someone. Well, occasionally one or two of the guys would run out and start playing too. The kids loved it!
I’m glad that I got to go, but especially glad that I was able to see the change of outward attitude in almost every guy in my ward. Attitude is what it’s all about.
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