The Good, The Bad, and The Both

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

- Philippians 4:8 NIV

Same verse as yesterday, but a different angle. Yesterday we talked about seeing the good in bad in things. What about seeing the good and bad in people?

We sometimes have the tendency to let one aspect of a person, define that whole person. It is all too easy to take one action someone committed and stick them in a box that defines their whole being. Let’s say someone blatantly cuts you off in traffic. As you step on your brakes, you look ahead to them through your windshield and don’t even see a wave of apology or anything. What’s the deal?! What an awful person! So, we stick them in the “bad box” within our minds. That person is now considered to be bad.

Yet, are they really bad? So they cut you off. Perhaps it was a mistake, or maybe they were actually being a jerk. What we don’t get to see is all of the good things that person may do. They could be really nice. They could be kind, and smart, and lovely, and admirable, but do we give them a chance to show it?

In the same way, we can put people in our “good” box. We may see the good enough in someone that we idolize them in a way in which we ignore what faults they may have.

Either of these extremes can be dangerous. What Paul seems to be telling us to do is hold both the good and the bad of people, to not put people in either box. In some sense we are being called to take people where they are at.

Take a minute and think about people in your life that you may be placing into a “good” box or a “bad” box. What do you think it might look like for you to hold both the good and bad of that person?

Spend a few minutes in prayer asking God to help shift your filters. Pray that He will help us stay open to seeing many sides of people.