puzzling statement about a person who was facing a personal problem.  They were described as “having an attitude.”  Doesn’t everybody have an attitude?  All the time, every day, about most everything?

Our beloved and highly respected former President Gerald R. Ford had a positive attitude about life and his position in it.  He was a humble man who did not see himself as being indispensable.  The only office he ever wanted, being Speaker of the House of Representatives, was never his.  He had to settle for two offices he did not seek and to which he was not elected, being both the Vice President and the President of the United States, in one of the most trying and difficult periods our nation has ever faced.

  President Ford’s attitude about life and public service was an important key to his success.  Some believed his granting a pardon to President Richard Nixon was not the proper thing to do.  He did it because he believed it was the right thing to do.

In athletic competition games are won and lost because of the kind of attitude players and coaches may have.  Boise State became the only Division I university to go through the entire 2006 season undefeated.  Their 13-0 record was the best in the nation.  The National Championship went to Florida who had lost one game.  The one undefeated team playing for that championship, in the minds of many, seemed to be invincible.  Ohio State had won every game until they lost the last one.

Most fans were surprised.  Boise State defeated Oklahoma with little time left by believing they could win with two perfectly executed plays which I remember from grade school days.  The “hook and lateral” and the old “statue of liberty”, plays from the schoolyard play book, were enough for an unlikely victory.  They believed they could and they did.

Ohio State had been so domineering and overpowering all season long.  They seemed destined to be one of the all-time great college football teams.  Some thought they were too good for college football.  They had as their quarterback the Heisman Trophy winner, emblematic of the finest player in NCAA football.  This mighty team seemed unbeatable, but it was not so.  They were soundly defeated in their last game of the season.

Florida had lost a game earlier in the season.  They knew they could be beaten.  No doubt about that.  Only the best effort of which they were capable would enable them to win.  They had already experienced defeat.  They did not want to go through that again.

How does all that relate to attitude?  It becomes a matter of what we believe we are capable of doing.  An old Jewish proverb states, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.”  Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23, NIV).

On a given day any team is capable of defeating any other team and also losing to any team.  So many of the wins and loses in life are determined by attitude.  Who we are, how much we have and our reputation may not be the determining factors.  All these must take second place behind our attitude.  Believe you can and you may.

There is nothing more important in the success and failure of life than how we view others and ourselves.

  What about our outlook, disposition, frame of mind and personal perspective?  How do we feel about things and people?  What is our assessment as we take a serious look at life?  Do we see the glass half full or half empty?  I heard a