Attitude

Link: Core Values
Focus: Holy Scripture (2/7)
Day: 02/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Setup:
Continuing the Bible study on Love. I am deeply encouraged by what I've seen in the last 24 hours.
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Prep:
I have a few directions in my head (all love related and am excited about what God has for me).

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Execution:
I prayed and recorded the results in a stand-alone paper journal.  In particular, I focused exclusively on John 21:15-17

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Day 2 Conclusions / Thoughts

It wasn't until today that I realized attitude is fundamentally pre-motive. Another way of thinking of it is to consider it the shape into which one's motives will grow. If you don't have a good/sweet attitude, then random/copious acts of love will potentially be as absent of depth / meaning as if you hadn't done anything.  It's fascinating how all of these things I thought were unrelated are deeply related.

In the same way that motive informs our actions, I believe attitude informs our motives. I see this evidenced in John 21 where Jesus is talking to Peter - Peter is having to face what he chose earlier (denied Christ) and Jesus makes some interesting choices. He starts out asking Peter if he loves him with agape love - Peter doesn't actually answer - instead replies "yes, I love you with philios love". Jesus' response to this is to Feed his sheep.  The word for "feed" used reflects Jesus' command to take care of the spiritual well-being of the people.  My take-away is that Jesus is trying to inform Peter's attitude - by giving him something specific to do to help Peter grow into "agape" love of Christ.

In the past 24 hours I got my answer about how to be more loving - the answer appears to be that, in the wanting, more attention is given on when an opportunity exists to be loving, increased discernment when one chooses to NOT be loving (even if only in retrospect), and generally more patience. I was not expecting any of that.

I also spent all day looking forward to this Bible study. I see Christ is actively changing me - and I pray that when we're through with the easy changes that God will keep nudging me through the hard as well.

Writing down things has also helped - without the documentation, it would never have occurred to me the role attitude plays in being a moral person.  It also explains why God has us "take every thought captive" and "be joyful, praying without ceasing" - because these actions lay the groundwork for our motives.