A Few Ways to Positively Banish Negativity From Your Life

Mike Hosey, Elder

If you’ve ever been around a negative person, you know how taxing they can be.  They will drain the life blood right out of your veins, and then complain about how pale you look. You’ve met these people. They whine about everything, and there is always a grievance with someone or something. These are not critical thinkers with a constructive heart. They’re just critical. Occasionally, they will turn the critique on themselves, but this is rare, and it’s usually not aimed at the right places, and so doesn’t produce the right results. But before you start praising me for spotlighting them, know there’s a bit of them in all of us.  We all can forget our Queen’s English and start jabbering in Whinese, so I thought I’d give you some tips on how to get the positive back in your life.  And don’t complain, it will take work regardless of how big or small a whiner you happen to be.

Take a look at your heart: Negativity is a matter of the heart. Luke 6:45 tells us so.  It also tells us that positivity is a matter of the heart. It is, after all, out of the heart that the mouth speaks. This means we must daily submit our hearts to both the spotlight and cleansing powers of God. For example, a really good question to ask yourself the next time you feel an urge to complain about someone else is, “Does God show patience with me when I’m doing something similar?”  Or, “How would I want others to treat me in their hearts and minds when they are critiquing my behavior?” Or, “Do my complaints make the situation better or worse, either in my mind or in reality?”

Taking control of your thoughts will affect your heart:  Philippians 4:8-9 tells us that if we think right thoughts, and behave in right ways that the God of peace will be with us.  And everyone knows that being around the God of peace changes hearts! Every good Christian demolishes ungodly arguments and pretensions by keeping his or her thoughts captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Negativity is contagious (and so is positivity): Negativity spreads between people like a disease. (1 Corinthians 15:33, Proverbs 22:24-25). But the reverse of this is also true (Proverbs 12:20). So show love to negative people, but don’t make them regular company.