Admit it – there is one person in all of our lives that we cannot stand to be around because they can find a problem for every solution. No one likes being around a “negative Nelly” (my apologies for the stereotype if a Nelly is reading this…) and I am no exception. It drives me crazy when all someone wants to do is focus on what’s wrong in life – especially when that someone claims to be a Christian.
You may have forgotten this, but Christians are supposed to be the most hopeful, optimistic, positive people on the planet. We have been forgiven, set free and empowered to live lives full of hope, joy, and peace – not to sit around and participate in the world’s pity party. Doing that only leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths, because, after all, no one likes being around a “negative Nelly”…
You might be wondering- is that who I have become? Take some time and answer the following questions honestly for a bit of self examination in order to find out:
- Do people I’m normally close to seem to be avoiding me lately?
- Do most of my conversation tend to focus on what’s going wrong with my life rather than what’s going right?
- Do I find a “problem for every solution” presented when someone tries to help me?
- Do I find myself in conflict with those around me at work, home, school, etc.?
- Do I tend to post negative, critical or hurtful stuff on social media?
The above list could go on and on, but I think that those five things tend to be a pretty good indicator of where we are with our attitude. When our mood sours so does our relationship with others, our speech and our on line activity. Whether we realize it or not we continue to dig ourselves deeper into the pit, in the opposite direction of which we should go, and wind up right where Satan wants us to be. We become “negative Nelly’s” without even realizing it.
If you think that’s what has happened to you the answer is pretty simple – repent. To break that down for you into simple English, change your actions and your way of thinking. If reading all the political junk on the web has brought you down then stop reading it. Or, if seeing a particular person’s posts discourage you simply unfollow them. Stop focusing on the negative and learn to be more thankful. You likely have much more to be positive about than you do to be negative anyway.
I get the fact that this world is becoming more and more negative. But I also want to remind you that we are to be the ones influencing the world, not the other way around. So instead of a “negative Nelly” how about being a “joyful Jesus-freak” instead? That would be pretty peculiar, which is the whole idea anyway.
Peace,
Glen
Pursuing the Peculiar 