Do You Notice The Good In Others?

When was the last time someone upset you in a way which put a damper on your day? Perhaps you though something was so unjust that it even changed your perception of the other person.

Was it last month, last week or maybe even today?

If you are anything like the author of these blogs, then these things can have an adverse affect on your daily life. This includes things such as concentrating, doing what needs to be done or putting off things altogether. At times like these we can begin to get irrational.

In general, humans have a tendency to criticize the other person, while minimizing the effect of their own actions.

During these times it is easy to mitigate our own sinfulness. It is important to remember as Christians we are not always right and the other person is not always wrong. In fact, if we reverse the roles in these situations, then we might become more aware of the irony that we have acted the same way they have to someone else in the past. Humans, in general, tend to criticize others and justify their own actions, even if the actions are the same as others in different circumstances.

Humans Are Not ALL Good or ALL Bad

Because they are made in the image of God we sometimes forget that humans are not all good or all bad. People often use examples like Adolf Hitler and ask what good was in him. For a couple of things, he was a vegetarian who said he loved animals and he also took the responsibility of leading his native people. While his actions lead us to think he might have had only a small amount of what we call "good", he was still made in the image of God. And, like stated above, humans tend to justify their own actions. In his case it had to do with the Germans unjust treatment in the Treaty that ended World War I. He had the audacity to act when he thought his nation was in peril.

In a more contemporary human example, people regularly criticize the president in the America, no matter who it is. While we might disagree with many of his policies, it is useful to remember that he was willing to take the responsibility for the well being of many people. If a person had to do it, they might realize that the job can be more difficult than it appears from the outside. A lot of ordinary people would not like that kind of burden and obligation that comes with the job. Would you?

Does part of what the president does make him a bad person? For example, if you like what Obamacare has done for people overall, but you disagree with a part of his plan (like abortion), does that make the president evil? It could have been Congress that put restrictions on what was included in the bill in order for it to pass. It would be a phenomenal accomplishment to please everybody (if it could ever be done).

Next time someone puts a damper on our day that we think is unjust, we could also try to remember that at least part of them is "good", if only for the reason they were made in the image of God.

Sources: Christian tradition, Bible