In life people only really notice something when things go wrong. People take notice the one time their car breaks down, or when their kid gets sick, or when their house floods.  But we don’t think anything when our car starts, when our kids aren’t sick, or our house isn’t flooded. It’s the same way we look at people.

It’s so easy to get annoyed at someone for one thing that they do that’s wrong, but what about the things that they do that is right? If you’re upset at your spouse for forgetting to pay a bill – were you thankful for the other dozen bills they paid on time that month?  Or when your kid didn’t do the dishes once that week – were you thankful all the other times they did?

How often are you thanked for all the millions of right things you do every day? You’re on time to work or school, you get all your work done, you pick up the kids from school, you pay your electricity bill.  And you do that week in and week out. But the one time you’re late or don’t get something done, people get all upset.

Now since we also focus on the negative, we take that one complaint and let it ruin our day – even if everything else went right. So what do we do? Because people are always focusing on the negative, people are always being broken down. So…we need to make a point of building people up.  And do you know what that’s called? Encouragement.

I Thess 5: 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up

We have to make a point to encourage. For every complaint you think they receive, we have to encourage them one hundred times. And maybe you can even turn a complaint into an encouragement. “Thanks for killing all those zombies.  You are great with the shotgun.  If you improved your aim a bit, you’d kill even more zombies, and maybe not shoot me in the leg at the same time.”

Ultimately, people are being torn down all the time.  We should reverse that and build people up all the time. But how do you know you’ve personally gotten to that point where you encourage people all the time?

It’s when people come around you, they sub-consciously feel that you are a positive, uplifting person.

We all have God’s work to do.  And life is hard.  We can make it a bit better by encouraging others. Like I’m going to encourage you right now for picking a great website to read.

I Thess 5: 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up

Take time to pray: Ask God for an encouraging spirit. Wow, people complain a lot.  People are so negative.  No one ever remembers about all the things we do right.  They focus on the one thing we do wrong.  I mean, it’s not like I was driving all that fast.  And he shouldn’t have been stopped in the first place.