Negativity

The thing that struck me in today’s reading (Proverbs 17) is how negative it is to be negative. It really made me think about my negativity. Several examples of the negativity of being negative are given in this chapter. Like:

– Mocking other people. (It might be serious and outright offensive, or it could be “all in good fun” but either way it’s negative and breaks others down instead of building them up.)
– Taking joy in the pain of others. (Maybe there’s a perverse little piece of your heart that gets excited when you hear about something bad that’s happened to another person. Or perhaps you enjoy being the bearer of bad news.)
– Telling people about how someone offended you. (You have a lot of sentences that start out, “You’re not gonna believe what ______ did…”)
– Starting quarrels or loving to debate. (Maybe you get an adrenaline rush from verbal sparring. Or you’re just interested in “the truth” and if that means you get in a lot of debates, so be it, the truth is worth it.)

The ironic thing is that I think we’d all say, “I prefer to be around positive people?” but we have to ask ourselves the question, “Am I a positive person?” Are you? Are you positive you’re positive?