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    • Abraham Lincoln chose the hard path in freeing a people in bondage.
    •Mother Teresa forsook all to help the poor and became a world figure.
    The power of choice is quite amazing and has far-reaching effects. We should all give more serious thought to the choices that we make and the impact they have.

Maintaining a Good Attitude
    Choosing to live with a good, godly, positive, loving attitude is something that hopefully each of us will do. We should not bounce back and forth between good and bad, godly and ungodly, positive and negative, and love and hate. As God’s Word says, “Choose life” (see Deuteronomy 30:19). Choose what will produce life for you and all of those whom you influence throughout your life.
    Famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti recalled that his father gave him some very wise advice regarding the power of choice. When Pavarotti was young, he worked diligently under the tutelage of Arrigo Pola to develop his voice. However, he also enrolled in a teachers college, not sure if music would pan out as a career. Upon graduation, Pavarotti was unsure which career to pursue—music or teaching.
    He asked his father, “What should I do? Should I sing or teach?” His father replied with these words: “If you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.”
    Even though it took him several more years of continued practice and hard work before he made his first professional appearance, Luciano Pavarotti never regretted his decision to pursue music wholeheartedly. He would say later in life, “Commitment, that’s the key. Choose one chair.” 3
    Luciano was choosing a career and we are choosing an attitude to live with, but the principle is the same. It is unwise tobe content to have a good attitude only when things are to our liking, and then transition to a bad attitude when they aren’t. It takes no courage or real strength to have a good attitude when things are good, but to maintain one throughout life no matter what our circumstances are, that takes a strong commitment.
    It is exciting to me to know that I can choose my attitude. My gender is chosen for me; I have no choice in my eye color, my height, and many other things, but my attitude is something I can choose. Good thoughts always precede a good attitude, and we cannot have one without the other. A good attitude makes life seem good even if it is difficult. People may wonder how you could possibly be happy with the troubles you have, but your secret is simply maintaining a good attitude. An attitude that says things will be made right in the end. An attitude that is hopeful when others are giving up.
    You may be thinking,
Well, that sounds nice, but it is very hard to do
. Actually, it is harder on us to have a bad attitude than a good one. I watched my father have a bad attitude all of his life, and he was one of the most unhappy and miserable human beings I ever knew. His inner thought life and the resulting attitude left him with a continual scowl on his face. Even when he answered the phone with “Hello,” he sounded as if he was irritated that he had to do so. Not everyone with a sour attitude is as negative as he was, but to have one at all is never productive.
    Our attitude actually affects our posture and facial expressions. Let’s say that someone we will call Ruth needs to clean her house on Monday, but she doesn’t want to do it. It is actually foolish to have a bad attitude about something we have to do anyway. As long as we are going to do it, why not do it with a good attitude so we can find some joy in doing it? But Ruth had not come to that realization yet. She had the habit of letting her thoughts and emotions run rampant and control her attitude.
    Ruth cleans, but she does it with a disgusted look on her face and with her shoulders slumped over, clearly expressing her dislike for the task at hand. All day she thinks about how hard she is working and how she wishes she