Are You a Winner?

At the school where I taught we had a fairly strict dress and behavior code. Its purpose was to teach our students the graces they would need in the workplace and to make an impact on society. Frequently I heard a student say, "I hate all these rules. I can't wait to get out of here." In a former children's home school setting one of the students was a chronic complainer about rules and authorities. Then he graduated and promptly joined the marines.

This condition of whining is not restricted to students in schools. In our town's online version of the newspaper each article has a place for the readers to make comments. It is amazing that no matter what the story certain readers whine about the police, the news reporter, the government leaders, parents and anything or anyone else that was featured in the story. They never seem to see anything positive.

People who are whiners are never winners. Their outlook is always negative. On the other hand, people who are winners have a positive outlook. A story is told about brothers who were extreme opposites. One was a total optimist and the other a total pessimist. The parents were concerned about both. So on the advice of a psychologist they bought each of them a special Christmas present. For their pessimist son the parents wrapped up the most wonderful gift they could remember him wanting. For their optimist son they wrapped up a box of horse manure. When the pessimist opened his gift he exclaimed, "Oh, I just knew I wouldn't get much of anything." When the optimist opened his gift he excitedly dug through the horse manure as he said, "With all this horse manure there must be a pony somewhere."

We each need to decide we will be a winner rather than a whiner, an optimist rather than a pessimist. In the Bible Paul decided to be a winner through the grace he found in his faith. He declared that he had learned how to both be abased and abound. Philippians 4:8 encourages us, "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things." By filling our mind with the good, positive things rather than the bad things of life we can become optimistic winners. Then that spirit is passed on to those around us. What is your choice?