Last year I released my first book. I didn’t have a publisher or agency helping me, so I was kind of making it up as I went. I botched the grand release of it, and the people who wanted to buy the book couldn’t actually buy it at first. Since then I’ve found typos and poor word choices throughout the pages. Maybe one day it’ll be a priceless first edition, but for now it’s just annoying.
I made a lot of mistakes in my first book. But can you really call them mistakes if you didn’t know what you were doing? Can you demand perfection of an imperfect person in an imperfect process?
We’re humans, not computers. We’re accident prone. It’s why auto insurance is a requirement. There is no way to avoid errors and accidents. You’ll find errors in whatever you attempt, and others will, too.
Random strangers on the internet can’t wait to take you down. They can’t wait to hop on to whatever you’re trying to do and attack it. I’ve never understood this mentality, but some people are so miserable and insecure that they want to make others as pitiful as they are.
Nothing is ever good enough if you scrutinize it for long enough.
I was struck this week by four simple words of Jesus from Matthew 20:26. He was speaking about how people will use their power to grind down others, and then he said, “Not so with you.” He went on to explain that he did not come to be served, but to serve.
Some people may jump at the chance to belittle someone or rip them apart. Some people are always focussed on everything in their life that is wrong. They are never encouraging. Not so with you.
Some people are so hard on themselves that they sit paralyzed in fear. Not so with you.
It’s easy to find the bad; the wise hunt down the good. The weak tear others down; the strong build up.
A little encouragement can go a long way, and the best part is, the more you believe in others, the more you’ll start to see the good in yourself. I dare you to speak some words of life this week and see what a difference it can make.
Hunt down the good.
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