Dwelling on the Good

"He who covers over an offense promotes love,
but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends." Proverbs 17:9 (NIV)

I love the fact that the Bible comes in so many translations. Today I read the Verse of The Day and it puzzled me. I wasn't quite sure what it was getting at, so I went and looked up the verse in a couple of different translations. This is what I ended up with from the NLT:

" Love prospers when a fault is forgiven,
but dwelling on it separates close friends." Proverbs 17:9

This verse is just so true, and it's much more clear in the second version as well. How often do we dwell on people's mistakes, but not on the good that they've done. We're always so quick to point out other people's faults, that we don't realize that sometimes we're genuinely hurting feelings and causing our relationship with that person to be broken. Instead, we should be doing just the opposite. We should be building our friends up- we should be encouraging them, not tearing them down. People remember the bad more than they remember the good. Why is that? I can still remember conversations that didn't go well from over 10 years ago...yet when I try to think of a good conversation with the same people, nothing comes to me.

Maybe if we spent more time scrutinizing the good and looking for the good we'd spend less time dwelling on the bad. I'm thinking that looking through rose-colored glasses and looking for the best in everyone and everything isn't such a bad idea. By making a conscious effort to look at the glass as half full, we can completely change the way we relate to other people. Imagine someone getting up in front of a group and talking for the first time. They do a terrible job...if you told them they did a terrible job, they'd likely never get up there again. But if you look for the good points- tell them you liked their message, the sound of their voice, or something else that you particularly liked that they said, they will remember that. They will feel bolstered by your encouragement, and perhaps get up and speak again another day.

We need to spend more time dwelling on the good instead of the bad. We need to look for ways to build up our brothers and sisters, because they get enough discouragement from the world around them. As friends, it is our job to do the opposite and show them love.