Proverbs 17:19-21
The one who loves a quarrel loves transgression;
whoever builds his gate high seeks destruction.
The one who has a perverse heart does not find good,
and the one who is deceitful in speech falls into trouble.
Whoever brings a fool into the world does so to his grief,
and the father of a fool has no joy.
Do you know that person who just can’t see the good in anything? There may be a hundred positive things happening around them and they’re still going to find something to complain about. You know what I’m talking about? I’m guessing there’s someone you know that’s like that. They could be sitting in a room filled with stacks of thousand dollar bills, and they’d start complaining that the stacks of money are taking up too much room. The look at a newborn baby and see a flaw. They get a new car, and have that one thing they just can’t stand.
I know some people like this. I was becoming a person like this. And I’m doing everything I can to change. But, this is no way to live. I don’t know what it is. I heard someone once say that they thought people criticize everything because they think it makes them sound smart. I can see how that could be. If you’re able to find fault in something, then you must be smart enough to see past all the good and see the flaws that no one else sees.
If this is you, what you don’t realize is, people don’t see you as smart, they see you as a jerk. You think you sound smart, but really you just sound like you don’t like anything in life. Even though there are all these good things around you, all you see is the negative. All you see is the stuff you don’t have. Or how the stuff you do have isn’t as good as the stuff you want. All you see the flaws in people and the things you don’t like.
What happened? How did you change? Slowly and over time. But, what has happened is you’ve not only trained yourself to think negatively about things, but you’ve also trained your heart to react negatively. “The one who has a perverse heart, does not find good.”
So, what do you do? Well, you can continue on the way you’ve been going. Problem is, by the time you die, you’ll be all alone because no one will want to be around you.
Or…You could decide to change. Instead of seeing the one negative thing, you could look for the hundreds of positive things. Instead of seeing the hundreds of negative things, you could look for the one positive thing. And over time, you will begin to retrain your heart and mind to see the positive in the world.
The decision to change is instantaneous. The proces of change can take time. So, give yourself time, but commit to it now. The world doesn’t need another pessimist. The world needs more optimists.
Be an optimist. Find the good.
