What the Parrot Saw: Shaping Attitudes in Trying Times
What the parrot saw changed his attitude. We can follow his example, especially in these difficult times.
Join me as we consider the connection between our attitudes and the challenges we face, particularly in the context of a heated election. We can -- and must -- choose our attitudes with care, following the instructions Paul gives to the Christians in Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome.
Attitudes always lead to actions. These actions will open or slam doors for others who need to come to Truth. We can embody a spirit of grace and understanding, ensuring that our actions align with the values we profess, especially during times of societal tension.
Empower yourself and your family to engage fully in God’s grand story. Subscribe to Hi(Impact) at Stephanie Presents for insights, encouragement, and practical resources!
Book Stephanie to speak to your women, parents, Christian educators, and students.
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Transcript
Once the connection between a foul mouthed parrot aeronautics and the ancient city of Ephesus.
Speaker A:And why might we need to know this one week before a heated election taking place here in the United States.
Speaker A:Stay tuned.
Speaker A:I promise there's a connection and you want to know.
Stephanie Smith:If your desire is to become spiritually stronger, emotionally healthier and relationally smarter, you're at the right place.
Stephanie Smith:Speaker and writer Stephanie Smith inspires and equips you to achieve these three key aims.
Stephanie Smith:If you're a parent, you'll also learn how to raise empowered kids ready for adulthood.
Stephanie Smith:Let's get started.
Speaker A:Welcome Back to the LiveSky 3 podcast.
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Speaker A:In the beginning of today I asked about what's the connection between a foul mouthed parrot aeronautics, the ancient city of Ephesus, and what does this have to do with the upcoming election one week from today happening here in the United States?
Speaker A:Well, let me tell you.
Speaker A:You want to know about this?
Speaker A:First I'm going to tell you about the parrot.
Speaker A:There was a man who had a parrot, but it had a very bad attitude and a foul vocabulary.
Speaker A:And yeah, there's a little bit of a play on words there with the word foul.
Speaker A:But he was a bad mouthed bird.
Speaker A:Well, the man's.
Speaker A:The man tries everything to change the bird's attitude and get it to clean up its bad language, but nothing works.
Speaker A:You ever feel like that when you're raising kids?
Speaker A:I understand that.
Speaker A:Well, finally, in a moment of desperation and just as a point of information, this is clearly not something we want to do with our kids.
Speaker A:But in a moment of desperation, he puts the parrot in the freezer.
Speaker A:Doesn't leave him in there long, but at first he hears the birds squawking.
Speaker A:He's kicking.
Speaker A:The bird is screaming out all kinds of nasty things.
Speaker A:And then suddenly it all gets quiet.
Speaker A:The man opens the freezer door, the parrot flies out, lands on his perch and says, I'm sorry that I offended you with my language and actions.
Speaker A:I ask for your forgiveness.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:This bird's owner is astounded at the bird's change in attitude.
Speaker A:He was just about to ask what happened?
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What caused the change when the parrot continued, by the way, may, may I ask, what did the chicken do?
Speaker A:All right, you can go ahead and laugh at that.
Speaker A:You know, the truth is that there is a lesson in that for us because it's not about what we do with offensive language parrots.
Speaker A:It's about what we do with our attitudes.
Speaker A:And sometimes the reality is that when we look around and compare ourselves to somebody else's plight or situation, it can absolutely change our attitude.
Speaker A:You know, attitude is something that the Bible speaks a lot about.
Speaker A:Attitude is also one of those things that it's kind of like wind.
Speaker A:It's hard to grasp, but we definitely see it when it's there.
Speaker A:We can feel it.
Speaker A:We may even be able to smell it.
Speaker A:We can sense it, we can pick up on it, but we can't pick it up and just grasp it in our hand.
Speaker A:But our attitudes and the attitudes of others definitely have a significant impact on us, and our attitudes have an impact on others.
Speaker A:Now, what does all of this have to do with aeronautics?
Speaker A:Well, you know, when I was looking up just the definition of attitude, because, okay, I get it, just definitions by themselves can be a little bit.
Speaker A:A little boring.
Speaker A:But sometimes being able to say, you know, how do we define this?
Speaker A:Well, one of the things that I realized was that there's actually an aeronautic term aeronautics has to do with flying aircraft.
Speaker A:There's a aeronautic term.
Speaker A:And I'm not going to be able to tell you exactly what this means, but I can gather the gist of it.
Speaker A:And it is when there's an inclination of the three principal axes of an aircraft relative to the wind and the ground.
Speaker A:Now, I am not a pilot, and I certainly don't have any training in aeronautics.
Speaker A:My only experience with airplanes is getting on them and getting off of them on the ground.
Speaker A:But I can deduce by that definition that there is a correlation between how a planes that the primary axis of a plane are inclined and what that has to do with the lift and with the capacity for that plane to take off and to land.
Speaker A:You know, what's interesting about flight is that a plane actually needs to take off with the air coming against it, not behind it.
Speaker A:It is that coming that air that's coming against the plane that actually allows that plane to have lift to get up off the ground.
Speaker A:And sometimes for us, it's easy to think that if we just have the wind coming with us, so to speak, that that's going to be what allows us to get off the ground for our attitudes to fly us up high where we can soar above all of our problems.
Speaker A:But that's not necessarily the case now.
Speaker A:A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of going on a three day bike ride with one of my sons and we, we rode the Paul Bunyan Trail in Minnesota and we really enjoyed it.
Speaker A:The short periods of time that we had a tailwind and that's where the wind comes from behind you and it helps to push you along.
Speaker A:And we did end up with some headwinds and even some side winds.
Speaker A:And those winds are not fun and they make for a challenging attitude.
Speaker A:But you know what?
Speaker A:The reality is that whether the winds of life are pushing us forward in the direction we want to go, or they are coming against us as they do in an airplane, we can still choose our attitudes.
Speaker A:Now, you might have remembered that I also talked about the ancient city of Ephesus.
Speaker A:And what's the connection with that?
Speaker A:Well, there was a man by the name of Paul and he wrote a letter to Christians who were living in this ancient city.
Speaker A:And one of the things that he says to them is, he says, you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds.
Speaker A:And you can find that in the New Testament book of, of Ephesians, chapter 4.
Speaker A:And then he goes on and he walks this out with a little bit more specificity.
Speaker A:And he talks about to put on the new self, which is to be created like God, in righteousness and in holiness.
Speaker A:And then he kind of, he does this compare and contrast and says, this is what it doesn't look like.
Speaker A:You need to get rid of speaking falsehood and instead you need to speak truthfully to your neighbor.
Speaker A:And then he talks about, in anger, don't let your anger cause you to sin and do not give the devil a foothold.
Speaker A:And then he goes on and he talks about very practical ways that people need to put on this new attitude, which is going to then lead to new actions.
Speaker A:Do you notice how attitude always impacts actions?
Speaker A:The two just go hand in hand.
Speaker A:Good attitudes lead to good actions and bad attitudes lead to bad actions.
Speaker A:Now, I get that that's not rocket science, so to speak, but it is sometimes that we forget these basic truths of life and we just become not uncaring, but we become weighed down by the struggles and the stress of life.
Speaker A:We get distracted by other things that are going on in our lives or in our communities or in the world.
Speaker A:And we can find ourselves getting pulled back into some old ways of being, some old ways of thinking, some old ways of speaking, some old ways of showing up in the world that really do not reflect this new attitude that God has given us as his followers.
Speaker A:And right now, at least here in the United States, there's a lot of stress going on for a lot of people, and it is resulting in some pretty bad attitudes.
Speaker A:The kind of attitudes and even the kind of language, whether it's spoken or it's spouted off on social media or whatever, that are kind of the equivalent of that parrot that we talked about.
Speaker A:Now, I'm not suggesting that we pick anybody up and stick them in a freezer, but we can, and we often need to freeze those things out.
Speaker A:We need to freeze them out of our own hearts, and then we sometimes need to freeze them out of our ears.
Speaker A:We need to take a lesson from the parrot who looks around and thinks he's got it so bad.
Speaker A:And until he sees the chicken, because the chicken's in a whole different category than the parrot.
Speaker A:And we can look around and we can say, you know what, here's the thing.
Speaker A:We're going to have an election and it's going to end.
Speaker A:Yes, it is going to end.
Speaker A:Thank you, God, it is going to end.
Speaker A:But you know what?
Speaker A:Life is not going to end.
Speaker A:And we need to be prepared about how we're going to show up, whether the people and that we want to win do or not.
Speaker A:We need to be prepared to show up with an attitude, not just after the election, but before the election that doesn't require us to have a change like the parrot.
Speaker A:If we are going around now and we are bad mouthing and we are griping and we are speaking nothing but fear and stress and anxiety and anger and divisiveness.
Speaker A:And then our candidate wins, and all of a sudden our attitude is totally transformed in our actions and our language.
Speaker A:We have a serious heart problem.
Speaker A:Now, that doesn't mean that we're just supposed to get to the point.
Speaker A:We don't care about anything.
Speaker A:But there is a difference between having showing up with the same attitude based on the fact that we have been called to put on this new life, that Jesus Christ paid the ultimate penalty to provide for us.
Speaker A:In this chapter, In Ephesians, chapter 4, Paul uses active language.
Speaker A:He says, you have to put off your old self.
Speaker A:He says, you have to put on the new self.
Speaker A:You have to put off falsehood.
Speaker A:You have to choose to speak truthfully.
Speaker A:He says, do not do this and do this.
Speaker A:Don't let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but do speak to build others up.
Speaker A:Don't grieve the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Get rid of the bitterness, the rage, the anger, the brawling, the slander along with all the malice.
Speaker A:Choose instead to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.
Speaker A:This work of being a disciple of Christ is real.
Speaker A:We don't do work in order to receive his salvation, but we do the work to live it out and to make it a real practice in our lives.
Speaker A:However, this election turns out not just at the presidential and vice presidential levels, but there are senators, there are representatives, there are governors, there are state ballot measures.
Speaker A:No matter how all of these different elections turn out, people are still going to need Jesus.
Speaker A:People in our lives are still going to need his help.
Speaker A:They're still going to need salvation, they're still going to need need to be transformed and to brought into the kingdom of God.
Speaker A:People are still going to end up in desperate situations and they're going to look around to find somebody who can show them a way out.
Speaker A:They're going to look around and see who's going to be there to show compassion and kindness and concern for me.
Speaker A:And if all they can remember from us is how crappy our attitudes were about and prior to the whole election, if all they can recall is maybe how crappy that they are after the election, they are not going to be impressed and desire to know our God.
Speaker A:But if they see us having the same attitude, whether the wind is behind us and we're riding our bikes down a trail and we're just loving every minute, or whether it's like we're in an airplane and we are taking off with the winds coming against us, either way, they want to see that our attitude is admirable.
Speaker A:It's respectful, it's kind, it's courteous.
Speaker A:It's all these things that Paul describes in Ephesians, chapter 4.
Speaker A:In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, Jesus asks this poignant, powerful question, and it's still the question that we need to be asking ourselves today.
Speaker A:What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Speaker A:And I'm going to paraphrase that a little bit, that says, what shall it profit us if our candidates, if our measures win the election, but we have lost our testimony?
Speaker A:That's not just going to be a cause to us and our character, but that can end up having a cost to other people that we don't even fully recognize.
Speaker A:In Romans, chapter 15, Paul, the same Paul who wrote this letter to the Christians living in Ephesus writes to the believers living in the city of Rome.
Speaker A:And he says, may the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had.
Speaker A:And that's a good place to stop right there, because it is worth us asking, is my mind and my attitude towards others the same as Christ?
Speaker A:And Paul goes on to say so that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:There is no one, I don't care how much they align with our political beliefs and preferences, that is deserving of the glory of God.
Speaker A:And while we know that theologically, we need to live that out relationally, I think that perhaps the verse that we should take with us the most as we come into this last week of the election and then even after the election.
Speaker A:And it's from another letter that Paul wrote, and this one he wrote to Christians who were living in the ancient city of Philippi.
Speaker A:And he says to them, in the very first chapter, he says to them, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Speaker A:Paul had just written to them, and he's in this situation where he doesn't know whether it's going to be better for him to die or if it's better for him to continue to live.
Speaker A:Now, this has nothing to do with Paul taking his life.
Speaker A:It's nothing to do with that.
Speaker A:It is a matter of.
Speaker A:That he was in a state where he could kind of rally himself and his health and to be able to say, God, please give me more time here.
Speaker A:Or it's almost implied that God was saying, paul, if you want, then it's.
Speaker A:It's okay, then I can.
Speaker A:I can take you home.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's implied, and I want to be clear that it's just implied.
Speaker A:It's not clearly stated.
Speaker A:So I could definitely be wrong on this, but it seems to me that the implication is that God is giving him some part of a choice here to make.
Speaker A:And again, this has nothing to do with Paul wanting to end his own life in a suicidal way.
Speaker A:It is rather acknowledging that sometimes people get worn out and they get exhausted from the struggles of this life.
Speaker A:And Paul had definitely had plenty of struggles.
Speaker A:And you can read all about that in some of his other letters.
Speaker A:But then he goes on and he says, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
Speaker A:And I think that we are not perverting Scripture to take that admonition that he gave to the Christians in Philippi, and we can apply that today in our lives.
Speaker A:And that is to say that we will determine that same God that Paul wrote about in Romans 15, who gives endurance and encouragement, that we can have the endurance, we can have the grit, and we can have the courage to conduct ourselves in a matter worthy of the gospel of Christ, no matter what.
Speaker A:We don't want to end up like the parrot.
Speaker A:We don't want to end up in a situation where God kind of has to, like, stick us in the freezer, so to speak, so we can look around and see the dead chicken in order for us to get our attitudes straightened out.
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Speaker A:I'll see you next time.
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