Focus on the Positive

“The maintenance men need to scrape the gravel roads.” A student at Ecclesia College had stopped in my office to complain about the slick campus roads. “They are just too slick to drive on. They need to be cleaned off like the blacktop roads.”

The young lady was correct. The recent storm had dumped ice and snow on the campus leaving slick roads for the staff and students to deal with. The maintenance crew had scraped all the college roads, but the gravel roads didn’t clean off as efficiently as the blacktop.

As she continued to complain, I realized all her focus was on the few slick streets without being thankful for the many others that were clear of the ice.

The student could have been thankful for the blacktop roads that had been cleaned, the equipment to clean the streets, the crew who had cleaned them for her to drive on and that she had arrived safely to her classroom from the dorm.

It is easy to focus and complain on negative circumstances, but we are more fun to be with and our stress level is lower when we focus on the positive. There are always good things in life’s challenges to focus on.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”  Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

Helen L. Hoover