CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

From TODAY, Voices
Thursday, 29-January-2009

By Dr Bill Maier

What would you say is the most important asset in a marriage?

According to Drs Les and Leslie Parrot, the most important asset is your attitude.

It’s the one thing that you have total control over – even when everything around you seems out of control.

For example, if you are miserable today, you could probably point to a set of circumstances that made you that way.

But you’d be wrong.

It’s not what happens that makes us unhappy; it’s our attitude toward it.

And attitude is a choice.

Mr Chuck Swindoll once said that life is 10 per cent what happens to us and 90 per cent how we react to it.

Happy couples aren’t happy because everything always goes their way.

They’re happy because they choose to rise above their circumstances and take charge of how they will and won’t react to them.

Using a baseball analogy, when life throws you a curve ball, you shake it off, smile and wait for the next pitch.