Here I was in 7th grade. I distinctly remember those pants (Don’t be joking on my pants! They were cool. . . at the time) and how fat my 12 year old self thought I was when I saw the picture.

Here I was as a teenager wearing the baggy-ass clothes because again I had that “fatty fat fat” chant thing going on and thought that I simply MUST cover up the unsightly blob.

Here I was as a young mom (Adam was about four years old there) and I remember my thought process that day. I thought I was too fat to put on a bathing suit and go out into public at the beach. I think it was at that point in time that God said, “Well, if you think THAT is FAT, then I’ll SHOW you FAT!” That declaration manifested itself in my 40s.

WHAT THE HELL? What in the HELL was I thinking all those years? While I was never skinny, I see clearly NOW that I was by no means FAT. While I was always bigger than my teeny tiny sister, I still wasn’t FAT. I am just built completely different. What is it that shapes our minds into such distorted self-perceptions?

And what happened to me that NOW you can’t hardly get me OUT of a bathing suit during the summer? That I INSIST on parading around with it ALL hanging out and I not give a flying ****.

In this picture, I had only been wearing shorts in public for a couple of years because I was convinced that my legs were so hideously ugly that it would scar people’s retinas if they came into visual contact. Now, these days, it’s hard to get me OUT of a pair of shorts. I had to wear pants when I went to Seattle last month because it was a little cool, and it about killed me.

It’s not like I look in the mirror these days and think that I’m magically thin, because thin I am most definitely not. Do you see those hips? However, my priority levels in life have shifted, I think. There are so many more things in life to worry about than whether somebody sees me in a bathing suit and thinks, “Wow! She should really rethink going out in public!” or “She really should cover those legs up before somebody stabs themselves in the eye!” Because what others think doesn’t concern me any longer.

Could this possibly be called Confidence? Or is it that I’ve had too many Miller Lites in my day?

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The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude …

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you … we are in charge of our Attitudes.

by Charles Swindoll

So how is YOUR attitude? Are you a glass half empty person, or a glass half full person?