Wednesday; December 30

How do we deal with all the negative information out in our world? While I would like to blame today’s society for inventing negativism, it has always been around. Ever since mankind began to assess life, pessimism has been a constant nemesis. In fact, every so often I like to go back to Jacob’s assessment of his life to help regain perspective on mine. Here is one of the great men of faith of the Bible and this is how he described his journey, “So Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.’” (Genesis 47:9). Yep, part of the human condition is seeing a half empty glass.
So how do we deal with the temptation to see the worst in life? Here are a few suggestions:

1. When you hear negative news, consider if it will directly impact you. While we need to be empathetic, we cannot carry everyone’s burdens on our shoulders. Not all the news should have a personal impact on us. When it doesn’t, let’s make sure we don’t internalize it.

2. When we hear someone complain about how bad things are, determine if their assessment is “fact” or “opinion”. There are a lot of tragedies in our world, but there are a lot more people who tend to thrive off of the negatives. Let’s invest our emotional energy on real issues we can control, not just internalizing the opinions of other people who like to spend time generating an overwhelming amount of misery.

3. Understand the big picture, but focus locally. We are surrounded by international news outlets. We are mere seconds away from knowing what is going on across the nation and around the globe. While this can keep us informed, it can also keep us stirred up. It is good to be up on current events, but let’s make sure we are not overwhelmed by things beyond our span of influence and control.
Think About It!

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