Daily In The Word – Feb. 17 – Flooding Life With Negativity
As I am making up my reading from the weekend, I have lots of things to think about. Some are bad and some are good. I look at the great potential each new day brings, I look at the wonderful gift that God gives me every day by giving me a breath in my lungs and a heartbeat. Yet, I can also think of all the bad things. I can think of the problems my children are causing. I can think of my frustrations with whatever is happening at my job. I can think of things like never feeling like we have enough money to stay out of the red. Each day, I have to make the decision about whether to focus on the good or the bad. I have honestly done both in my life, though spent more time focusing on the bad versus the good. However, I think the key is finding a balance. If you only focus on the good stuff going on and don’t try to think of the bad, you come off as the crazy person who is always happy and seems out of touch with life. Likewise, if you spend your entire life focusing on the negative, you become a poisonous person who destroys the happiness in their lives and the lives of others. Unfortunately, once we get started going one way, it’s very hard to go back. This is echoed in Proverbs: “If you repay good with evil, evil will never leave your house. Starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate, so stop before a dispute breaks out.” (Proverbs 17:13-14, NLT). Once you start focusing on the negativity, you may find it hard to get back out. The more negative you get the more quarrels you may start. The moral of this story? Strike a balance but err on the side of positive.