It is an easy task looking for the bad.  Most of the time it’s so obvious that it seems to jump right out at you.  Looking for the bad ties so conveniently to complaining and murmuring.  One feeds off of the other.  The more you find the more you complain and the more you complain the more you find.  We all do it to some degree while some have made it into an art!   

The habit of looking for the bad is as common as how most supervisors operate.  In fact their jobs could easily be summed up by how well they find the bad.  It’s called managing by exception but it should be called managing by expectation.  It is when your boss or supervisor comes around and points out ALL of the problems, failures and causes that they find.  Usually they neglect to point out any positive, good ideas, successes and achievements.  They’re expecting to only find the bad so that is all that they look for.  Having been a store manager it was expected of me to do the same.

How sad that after a day of surviving the criticisms at work that coming home finds you doing the same to your family.  It is everywhere and hard to escape from.  It becomes part of your life and your daily routine.  The effects can easily permeate all areas of your life.  Putting you in a bad mood, adding to a bad attitude, wanting to fight or argue, having a “short fuse” easily upset, grumpiness, irritability, depression, anxiety and a host of other random emotions running amok. 

It comes down to the old phrase of “If you look for the bad you will surely find it”.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  So often when you get caught up in looking for the bad the good and God’s blessings are overlooked, ignored, blown off and disregarded.  That’s when the poison of finding the bad and complaining mix together to destroy your peace and joy.

God rescued and delivered the Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt.  Not only did God do this after performing huge miracles but parted the Red Sea to secure their escape.  All three million plus Jews left Egypt totally healed from ALL sickness and disease.  Not one lame person was found among them. 

God loved and cared for His people the Israelites by feeding them, protecting them, guiding them, keeping them in perfect health and kept their clothes and sandals from wearing out for forty years.  The goodness of God’s blessings surrounded them but they chose to ignore them and took God for granted.  With all that God did and provided for them every day instead of thanking and praising God they complained and murmured against Him and His blessings. 

It takes a conscious effort to look for the good, to find God’s blessings.  Yes, by practicing you can make it into a daily habit.  Just start thanking God for ALL of the blessings in your life and you will find more of His blessings to be thankful for.  It reminds me of the old saying that went something like “I used to complain about the pain in my arms ‘til I saw a man without arms”.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16 “Rejoice always and delight in your faith; 17 be unceasing and persistent in prayer; 18 in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

If the saying is true that “if you look for the bad you will surly find it” then it is also true that “if you look for the good you will surely find it”!  God gives us reason upon reason to bless and praise Him every day.  Just look around and you too will surly find God’s blessings!