Mario Williams was the first player taken in the 2006 NFL draft. He has had a solid career playing for the Texans and the Bills, but last season he complained about how Buffalo was using him and the team raised concerns about his effort. So, in the offseason, he signed with the Miami Dolphins, and his recent comments via the team’s website sound like he has a good approach moving forward:

“The No. 1 thing that you can definitely look forward to [from me] is attitude. I think any year, no matter what happens previously, you can’t look at the future or anything like that, but you can handle it right now. And my biggest thing, every day I wake up is going to be the best attitude I’ve ever had. And with attitude, everything is going to follow. I know for sure I’m going to be out there humming 100 miles per hour and it’s going to be the full attitude.”

Williams appears to have made an excellent decision by putting an emphasis on his attitude. There is such value for all of us to have a positive attitude when tackling each day – it’s an element we can actually control. Plenty of things will go wrong today and tomorrow, and we will face challenges left and right, but if we keep the right perspective we will respond much better to difficulties.

The reality is, the more we keep our eyes and hearts fixed on Jesus, the more likely our attitude will reflect His character…and our outlook on circumstances will be rooted in hope and faith. There are plenty of things to be negative about, and reasons to have a bad attitude, but when we go in that direction we aren’t focusing on Jesus.

The Bible offers us this encouragement in Romans 12:12 (ESV) –“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” The Message translation says it this way in verses 11-12: “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder…”

Approaching each day with the right attitude can be difficult, but I believe when we view life through the lens of faith and place our full trust in Jesus, our lives will reflect joy, peace, and thankfulness. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can unpack that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please remind me today of Your love and faithfulness so that my attitude will reflect thankfulness for everything You’ve done for me. Forgive me for my bad attitude and the times I look at my circumstances with no hope, instead of looking to You for strength and peace. Please help me to represent Christ well with my attitude. In His name, I pray, Amen.