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Scripture:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Consider:
I had one of those surreal parenting moments where you are both engaging in the conversation and able to see your own behavior at the same time. We were talking about something innocuous at the dinner table - I honestly don’t remember what it was - when my daughter made “the face”. My kids all started laughing and pointing, telling her she was making the “mom face”. To which I replied: “Do I really look like that?”
“Yes.” they said, “It’s your mom face - they one you make when you are mad about something.”
I did not like that face. Mostly because it looked too much like my own Mother’s Mom face and because it made me wonder if that was the face they saw most often from me.
My kids are amazing. They make me laugh on a regular basis. I’m often impressed by their bravery and curiosity, by one child’s friendliness and another child’s kindness. I notice how they support each other and play together well - most of the time. I see them becoming the best version of themselves and celebrate.
But I wonder if I ever actually told them any of those things.
So over the last few weeks, I’ve greatly reduced the appearance of the mom face in exchange for celebration mode. I’ve been intentional about telling them when they do amazing things. I’m leading with the positive of what just happened instead of immediately leaping towards the mistakes. I’ve given them more freedom and laid off the micro-managing.
It turns out we are all much happier with this arrangement.
Too often, we only mention or point out when things go wrong - either with each other or with God. But Paul challenges us here to make a point of noticing the good in each other - and then taking the extra step of TELLING THEM. It seems so obvious, but we are much quicker with condemnation than praise.
If we shifted towards a praise mindset instead of a critical one, and we chose to speak the words of thanksgiving instead of the words of anger and bitterness, I wonder how our lives may change.
Respond:
Which do you find yourself doing more often - criticising or celebrating? Today, try and take a different tactic and let someone know how much you appreciate the good thing they just did. Don’t just think it… say it!
Pray:
Moving God,
Sometimes in life we feel out of control and want to make a change. We buy new gadgets, try new systems, and rearrange our schedules in an effort to force the change into our hearts. Help us to do the hard, inner work of change which comes from within first. Give us the blessing of the inward inspection where we seek, with honesty, the reorienting of our next steps. Amen.
