NOT-SO-IDENTICAL TWINS

Author Unknown

There were once two brothers who were identical twins. Now even though they looked exactly alike, they were exact opposites when it came to their personalities. One brother was an eternal optimist--he always saw good in everything and everybody. The other brother, however, was an eternal pessimist--he never saw good in anything anywhere.

One Christmas, their parents decided to try an experiment on them to see if there was any way that the two brothers could find some balance in their personalities. To the pessimist son, the parents gave a bright, shiny bicycle. To their optimist son, they gave a bag filled with nothing but straw. They put their presents under the tree with the boys' names on them and waited to see what would happened.

On Christmas morning, the two boys ran downstairs to discover what they had received from their parents. Upon finding the bicycle, the pessimist proclaimed, "A bicycle? Why did you give me a bicycle? It's too cold to ride outside, and besides, I will probably fall and hurt myself. I can't believe you got me a lousy bicycle!"

The optimist opened his present, found the bag of straw and thought for a minute. Suddenly he ran to the backyard and began looking around frantically. His parents and brothers were completely puzzled, and they finally asked him "What in the world are you doing?" To which he replied, "Well, after getting that bag of straw, I just know there's a pony around here someplace! I just haven't found him yet!"

Attitude can make a huge difference in your circumstances. When things happen to you at home, at school, with your friends--you have two choices. You can take the high road or the low road. The high road is to remain positive and look for the good in your situation. The low road is to be negative and to see only the bad. One road leads to happiness, the other to despair. Really, the choice is yours. Circumstances don't have to control your life. You can instead control how those circumstances affect you. You have the power.

As Christians, we have every reason to take the high road and to be optimistic about life. Because of Christ, we have hope--real hope. We know that no matter what happens, God is in control and we have the victory that Christ won for us on the cross. The apostle Paul was in prison when he wrote, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4). That's the kind of attitude we need to have.

Shared by Margaret

PRAYER

"Lord, rouse my spirit from complacency and stir my faith to see you act today. Give me boldness to live and proclaim the message of the kingdom of heaven and to be a prophetic sign of that kingdom to this generation."