I am fed up with negativity (I recognise the irony of this statement). All of us have the capacity to be negative (unless you are a proton) but for some reason we humans seem to focus on negatives and ignore positives. I was having a conversation with someone yesterday who remarked that we need 10 positive comments to outweigh one negative one. I am not sure about the ratio but there is some truth in there: we seem to give more weight to negative comments than positive ones.

And, sadly, we humans can be quicker to offer negative comments than we are to offer positive ones. When we offer criticism it requires less thought to make a negative statement than to offer constructive criticism. This is probably why a lot of criticism is thought-less – we don’t think about the impact on the person receiving it we just want to make our statement and feel self-righteous.

Negativity can become a downward spiral too. One negative comment about us can lead us to think negatively about ourselves and others and then make negative comments about others and so on.

So, instead, what if we all resolved to do what Paul wrote to one of the early churches: “Encourage one another and build each other up…” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)? Can you imagine the difference it would make to other people if instead of negative comments they received encouragement and we built them up? Imagine the newspaper headlines if editors had that attitude!!

Who will you encourage today? Who will you build up? (And if someone does that for you, thank them and receive it).

Be blessed, be a blessing