There was a lady by the name of Vivian Greene; I don’t know if  you ever heard of her. She’s a writer of some note, probably most famously known for a quote that she’s written about “when the storms come, dance in the rain.” It is really a metaphor for just dealing with the issues as they come in our lives. It’s a great quote, but here’s another one that she said–it’s what I want to really talk about today– “It is not circumstances that create our discontent or contentment. It is us.” It is us. To state that in a different way . . .  when we have our current culture here in the United States, it seems to be about a culture of victimology where we blame other things, or other people for the things in our life. When in actuality, in reality, really it’s just a lack of accountability on that person’s part who uses that method. So as Ms. Green puts it, it is really just up to us.  It all boils down to the attitude that we take toward things. Do we have a poor attitude? Do we have a bitter attitude, a selfish attitude, or an attitude of discontent? Or do we have an attitude of joy, of contentment?  Is it well with our soul?  Are we satisfied with just the cottage below, a little silver and a little gold? Do we indeed dance in the rain when the storms passed by? What is our attitude toward that?

Let’s take a brief look at several lessons from the Bible and we’ll see different characters and their attitudes they have toward the things that happen to them in their lives.