The theme of The Attitude Rules is built around the words “good and bad.” But as a Christian, you might use the words “Christ-like (good) or it’s not (bad)” or “It pleases God (good) or it doesn’t (bad).” It’s the same thing, but from the perspective of the “born again” believer in Christ, it simplifies things even more.
Rule #1 – Thoughts. attitudes and the actions they produce are either good or bad, but can’t be both at the same time and can’t be anything other than good or bad and whatever else represents good and bad…for example: positive or negative, optimistic or pessimistic, friendly or unfriendly, happy or unhappy, enthusiastic or apathetic, respectful or disrespectful, Christ-like or not, and many more.
There is no gray area between good and bad to hide in or to deceive yourself with, just good and bad. You must choose a side, just like Adam and Eve did with the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil“ in the garden, and just like them, you only have two choices. (P.S.- Their two choices were to either obey God or to disobey Him. One was good and one was bad. “And the Lord God commanded the man (even before Eve was created), saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you ‘shall surely die‘” (from Genesis 2:16-17 NKJV). It was a command, not a suggestion. They both disobeyed God, sinned (and Adam bore complete responsibility for it) and it didn’t work out very well for them or for all of us either. But the “Good News” is that God already had a plan for the redemption of man through Jesus Christ, even before time began.
Since the creation of the first man and woman there has always “only” been just two choices for all of us who are of the seed of Adam (every human being), one choice, good, that pleases God and one choice, bad (called sin), that does not.
And it’s been that way ever since.
Good means helpful, constructive and productive. It’s morally excellent. It’s positive and desirable in nature. Good is a virtue, the perfect nature of God and “goodness” is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit; “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).” It is also one of the seven qualities of the born again believer in Jesus Christ; “and to your faith add these things: goodness, knowledge, self-control, patience, Godliness, kindness and love (2 Peter 1:5).”
In fact, goodness only exists because there is one true, living, Creator God as the moral authority in the world He created. God is perfectly good. He does not have to choose between good and bad because He is good all the time. Man on the other hand, is not perfectly good. He can certainly “do good,” and maybe a lot of good, but he is not “good.” Only God is good; perfectly good. That’s the standard we are supposed to meet. There could be no bad if there was no good and there could be no good without God. We would not know that something was bad if there was not good to compare it with. If not for good, bad would just be a choice, an opinion; neither right or wrong.
Good and bad are two completely different things, going in two completely different directions and producing two completely different results. Thoughts, attitudes and actions (as well as character, identity, the roles you play in life and the quality of life your live each day) are all either good or bad, this way or that way, one way or the other and there is no other option to choose from.
Don’t fool yourself. We all know the difference between good and bad. The law is written in our hearts so we can distinguish the difference and our conscience bears witness to the choice (Romans 2:15). Sometimes our thoughts tell us that what we’re doing is bad (accuses us), and sometimes our thoughts tell us that what we’re doing is good (defends us, confirms it). But… we know the difference.
Good is always good and bad is always bad and good can never be bad and bad can never be good, no matter how “good” bad might seem at the time. Good and bad never intersect. They are as far away from each other as the east is to the west.
“Good thoughts, attitudes and actions can never cause bad results and bad thoughts, attitudes and actions can never cause good results.” (adapted from James Allen, As a Man Thinketh; emphasis added)
There are degrees of good and bad…excellent, great, etc. (degrees of good) – terrible, awful, etc. (degrees of bad), for example, but even the “worst good” is still good and the “best bad” is still bad. If something is “not very good,” it is still good and if it is “not so bad,” it is still bad.
Let “good” and all the words that represent good be your “default factory setting,” the way your character has intentionally been designed and simply evaluate and adjust and “reset to default” as often as needed.
Positive (+ ‘the plus’ sign; adds to) is good, optimistic is good, friendly is good, happy is good, enthusiastic is good, respectful is good, unselfish is good, and the list goes on and on. Negative (- ‘the minus’ sign; subtracts from) is bad, pessimistic is bad, unfriendly is bad, unhappy is bad, apathetic is bad, disrespectful is bad, selfish is bad, etc.
But “good” is also Christ-like, right, moral, appropriate, pleases God, caring, motivated, cheerful, compassionate, confident, determined, grateful and many, many more. (Note how all these examples represent “good”).
Good helps. Bad hurts. Good produces benefits and bad produces consequences. Good represents the blessings and bad represents the curses. Good represents righteousness (doing right) and bad represents unrighteousness (all wrongdoing).
Here is an illustration of the unlimited power of good and bad attitudes:
- A good attitude can make the good things in your life seem like they’re so good they couldn’t possibly be any better.
- A bad attitude can make the bad things seem like they’re so bad they couldn’t possibly be any worse.
- A bad attitude can even make those good things seem like they’re not as good as you thought they were.
- But a good attitude can make the bad things seem like they’re not so bad after all.
Bad attitudes make both bad things and good things seem worse. Good attitudes make both good things and bad things seem better.
Better is always “better” than worse.
Whatever choice you make, makes you. That choice shapes and defines the content of your character which reveals the person you really are… your true identity.
So it’s a must for you to always make “good” choices.
Notable Thoughts about Good and Bad
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” – John Wesley
“A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances.” – James Allen, As a Man
theattituderules.com 