Finding Bad in Good
by Ray Geide

        I am in no way a person who appreciates, understands, or knows anything about art. That is why I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to an art exhibit put on by an art professor at our university. Yet once inside I was amazed at his paintings. I had never seen painting so lifelike. They looked like photographs. I stayed there all of ten minutes instead of my usual ten seconds.
        What if this artist had invited me to his home to see the masterpiece he had spent ten years painting. Entering the front door it captured my attention filling an entire wall, beautiful and wonderfully painted. Even though overtaken by its beauty, what if instead of complimenting it, I walked up to the lower edge and pointed out that the grass had no bugs in it, or the frame just didn't enhance the painting, or his signature was all wrong. What an insult! What am I, an art dummy, doing criticizing a masterpiece painted by a great artist? How rude!
        Yet isn't that what we do every time we criticize someone or complain about something. Each human being is a masterpiece painted by God, "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). God created this world for our enjoyment. Our environment, our lives, and the people around us are wonderfully crafted by God. Yet we seem to always look for and find bad in these good things.
        The Bible says, "Who are you that criticizes another?" (James 4:12). "Who are you that criticizes another man's (God's) servant? to his own master he stands or falls" (Romans 14:4). "Therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God...these things ought not so to be" (James 3:9,10).
        A person who looks for bad in everything will never be happy. To be happy you need to do just the opposite, find good in bad. Every situation has its good points. Take that bad thing you are complaining about and see how it is good. It will change your outlook on life.