day no. 14,919: weather or not

External stimuli like weather can affect our moods and attitudes. A long enough stretch of harsh weather can lend itself to a harsh attitude.

And while these factors certainly must be considered, it must also be considered that a person is not forced to have a harsh attitude. It is an option. It is even an understandable one, but it isn't an inevitable, deterministic one as though you had no other choice than to be grouchy because it was too cold, too hot, you were too hungry, too tired, too stressed, etc...

We are not simply responses to stimuli. We are persons made in the image of God and we are not the sum total of our environmental factors. 

The Apostle Paul said it specifically as,

Philippians 4:12-13
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Stephen Covey said it more generically as, 

"Proactive people can carry their own weather with them."

When you have something inside you, driving the way you interpret the world around you, your filter becomes the weather. You can look at cloudy skies with smiling eyes. You can acknowledge the rain and the clouds without being depressed by their looming darkness. You do not have to pretend that they aren't dark and that sunshine isn't more preferable, but you don't have to be utterly tossed about by the jet stream.

Covey again said it this way,

"The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of a proactive person"

There is no denying that some external stimuli lend themselves more likely to joyful attitudes, like sunshine...

Ecclesiastes 11:7

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

But there is no denying that God sends His rain on the just and the unjust alike and whether the weather is sunny or overcast, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.