Our pastor shared a great illustration at church yesterday that I think applies to everyone… even those who don’t claim to know Christ and follow Him. In fact, a lady who reads the blog regularly leaned over and said, “Sounds like that could be your next blog post.” So, I’m sharing it with you today…
Our youth pastor, Blake, has really gotten into disc golf. Like really gotten into it. Like is playing tournaments all over the place… and winning. I was talking with his parents after the service about it, and it’s a real possibility that, if he keeps going at this rate, he could start earning money playing. Suffice it to say, he is pretty good… at least better than me. 😉
Pastor had Blake set up a goal… or a hole… or a net… or a cage… or whatever they call those things you throw the frisbee… excuse me, disc… into. Then he had Blake take three throws at the cage. Blake made the first two, but then missed the last one. (We all know he missed on purpose.)
Pastor began to knock Blake for missing one throw. He went on and on about it. “Blake, I can’t believe you missed that last toss. I thought you were good at this. What’s wrong with you?” Then he pointed out that he could have spoken positive, encouraging words instead like, “Way to go, Blake! 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. I’m so proud of you!”
We have a choice, you see, when it comes to how we are going to speak to people in our lives… our family, our friends, our co-workers, others we come across in the daily course of life. We can encourage… or we can criticize. It’s so unattractive when we criticize. It doesn’t help the other person… or us… or anyone else listening.
But we have the power to lift people up each day. In The Message paraphrase of Scripture, the Apostle Paul writes in I Thessalonians 5:15, “Look for the best in others, and always do your best to bring it out.” We can do that today. We can do it tomorrow. We can do it every day.
Let’s choose today to find something good and positive in every person and in every situation. And then let’s choose to talk about those good things instead of the other stuff. It doesn’t mean we’re not aware of the other stuff. It just means we choose not to focus on it.
And let’s face it… 2 out of 3 really ain’t too bad after all!
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