Tend Negative? Here’s A Challenge

Do you tend to see things a bit negative? Are you a half-empty person? Do you often see what is wrong with someone or something before you see what is right? What about your outlook? Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop all the time? The bad news? When you listen to other people do you tend to believe them, doubt them, want to verify them, or just disbelieve them? What about motives? Do you tend to think you know other people’s motives? If you tend negative, here’s a challenge for you.

Being Negative Hurts You and Others; Being Positive Does the Opposite

Negative people create a burden on those with whom they associate. They bring the cloud with them. Over time, people tend to shy away or just know about you that when something is said about almost anything (or, for some of us, maybe particular topics), they expect you to be the negative person. Both of these things hurt your ability to function in the body of Christ because they limit what you do for those in the body around you.

Three specific verses come to mind when I think about this topic.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:29).

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16:24).

Your outlook and your words should reflect a sweet soul that desires what is best for the other person, including ministering grace. Through the message of the Gospel and in our walk with Christ, we are reminded God’s love, grace, mercy, patience, and endurance. God grants us grace and mercy; we should desire to give that grace and mercy to others by the boatload.

¹⁰ As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Minister to one another. How? As a good steward of the manifold grace of God that has been given to you.

We each have received grace upon grace upon grace. As we make ourselves and keep ourselves aware of this, God’s grace manifested to us motivates us to share that same grace to others.

Tend Negative? Here’s A Challenge

Take one day and intentionally listen to your thoughts and your words. As thoughts race across your brain, take a second to evaluate them. Are they positive or negative? Do they assume the best or the worst? If heard, would the other person around me be encouraged or discouraged? Are they like honeycomb which makes a day better? Do they build up or tear down?

Take a moment to consider if your thoughts and outlook reflect love that bears, believes, hopes, and endures. Ask yourself if your love is rude, envious, seeks its own, or thinks evil.

If you tend negative, then intentionally do not say those things. Put off a spirit that may hurt or discourage others and put on a spirit that builds up, encourages, assumes the best, and looks for something right. Even when the situation calls for you to say something that may be construed as negative or as a caution, do so after you have chosen your words closely, intentionally started with encouragement, and then graciously say whatever is right in that moment. Truth needs to be spoken; however, truth should always be wrapped in love. Love relates more than simply to your motive. Love must also include the way things are thought and said as well.

Enjoy your day of intentional encouragement! When you fail, repent to God and maybe to the other person. Then, correct yourself. May encouragement to others rule your day! As it does, you will be blessed by it.

And, don’t forget to smile as well. Scowls communicate too. :)