Attitude. It was not until I was in the midst of homeschooling my first child I realized how much attitude impacts our five senses and ability to think. All of a sudden I understood why fourth grade was so hard for me. I would go in each day with a long face, dragging my feet, trying every persuasive mechanism to convince my parents to not send me to school, and when they would not comply I would spend the next couple hours murmuring. The math may have been hard, but probably not as difficult as I made it out to be. The reading may have been a lot, but not as overwhelming as I made it feel. When my child would have a poor attitude I would notice everything shutdown. He was no longer able to hear and understand the words being spoken. He was unable to see details right in front of him. His mind would get cloudy and ultimately he would give up or claim defeat or worse yet sit there murmuring under his breath. As adults our attitudes still matter and impact our ability to learn and grow in this life school.

The world often uses isolation in a negative context. When we hear the word isolation we may quickly associate it with a punishment. We isolate criminals from society to make them pay for their crimes in the desire to create a safer society. Protect people. Jails are full to capacity so society is safer, so the world thinks. We isolate those we cannot control with the intent of creating a safer society.

Ever since he was a tiny little toddler my second son's favorite bible account is when Jesus heals ten lepers and only one turns and thanks Jesus. I never really understood what exactly from this account caught my son's attention. Was it the disease? Was it the healing? Was it the healer? So I asked. To my astonishment this three year old at the time stated, "Why did only one turn back and say thank you? Weren't they all suffering from the same thing?"

Out of the mouth of babes! 

As a child when I went to the movie theater to see a film I use to try to anticipate whether the crowd would clap at the end of the movie. It was rare, but when a great film completed the theater would erupt with claps, cheers, and a very strong emotion of joy would fill the theater causing this sense of not wanting to leave. As I have entered into adulthood, this sense of joy and recognition of witnessing greatness seems to be lost. I cannot remember the last movie I saw in the theater let alone one that people actually clapped in joyous celebration of experiencing it together. I believe the cause of dullness is weariness in the people. The weariness in our spirits. 

When was the last time you clapped with unexplainable joy? When was the last time you acknowledged the witnessing of a miraculous work?

Ever buy furniture you have to assemble? The package arrives and I carefully take every piece out of the box and lay it down in organized piles. Then I quickly open up the instructions. I read carefully through those instructions before beginning to assemble the item. Carefully. Very carefully to ensure not one item is misplaced. I look over the instruction with great detail.