On Good Attitude

Often times its difficult for us to keep good attitudes when we're frustrated or in a tough situation.
Every now and then i get this feeling (it happened a lot in the last quarter of this past school year) that the whole world is conspiring against me. I feel like the walls are caving in and there's no escape. Like when i have 4 hours of homework, was late to school every day that week, and have about 80 assorted things to remember concerning people/places/tech crew/etc.

Other times, we can find ourselves in situations involving people.
Like this one time with David in 2 Samuel 16:5-13.
"As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, "Get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!"
Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head."
But the king said, "Wheat do you and I have in common, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord said to him, 'Curse David,' who can ask, 'Why do you do this?'"
David then said to Abishai and all his officials, "My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today."
So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt. The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself."


David was passing through a town and all of a sudden some crazy dude started throwing dirt at him.
Instead of having his head cut off, David showed an incredible amount of rationality.
First of all, its not like the guy was any real threat to the King. He had his bodyguards and such, probably a whole army behind him, and this one guy wasn't about to harm the king.
David also exhibited some perspective:
at the time, he was facing off against his own son for his thrown. His son wanted to kill him; why blame the random dude for wanting to kill him also?
So David takes the passive approach: he ignores the guy.
He trudges on.
He gets to where he intended to go, perhaps with a little more excitement than otherwise.

I know plenty of people who, were they in this situation, would have blown up in the guy's face and gone nuts.
Who was he to question the king?
Surely killing off this nuisance could have been justified.
But David probably just chuckled a little bit and kept on walking.
That's pretty sweet.