“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church….a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.”
― Charles Swindoll

Is it a sign of our times?  Have we become a stubborn people?  Has the voice of those we employ as our political representatives, given in to the dogged determination of their own thinking, rather than doing the work of we the people?

Throughout the history of man, attitude can be a great motivator or an even greater detriment.  When we’re stubborn, we’re often immovable as well.  Nothing anyone says or does will change our mind.  We believe we’re right and no words, deeds or other solutions are going to influence us.

In God’s Word we hear about the stubbornness of God’s people, Israel, as they hardened their hearts against their Creator. We see it as they fled from Egypt and found more and more to complain about.

Psalm 81:11-12 ““But my people did not listen to my voice.   Israel would not submit to me.  So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels.”

Attitude is one of those attributes that conjures ideas of negativity to most of us, but it can be a great tool as well.  When we’re stubborn for the right reasons, we are taking a stand and fighting for our beliefs.  It takes a certain amount of tenacity to be stubborn.  The word itself is connected to be persistent, adamant and determined.  It’s also associated with being headstrong, unreasonable and pigheaded.

It seems to me that God wants us to follow Him in all our ways.  When we’re considering things that will effect millions of others, we should consider carefully and look to God for answers that would serve Him well.  We need to be steadfast in His teachings and strong willed when it comes to doing His work.

Unfortunately our people have lost some of that original stubborn as a mule mentality.  We’ve become stiff-necked, resistant and often unreasonable.  Being stubborn has positive connotations too.  Maybe it’s time to look at that side of it.