Catch them doing something right

I'm sure I've shared this before, but an early piece of advice I received when I was working with young people was "catch them doing something right." Anyone can point out their flaws, this person told me. That doesn't take anyone special. But catching them doing something right, well that is often something they've never experienced before. That is special.

It became sort of a game for me. I'd walk into the most troubled and rugged group of kids and I'd make it a mission to find something good about the roughest of them all - something everyone else was overlooking.

That game changed me more than it ever changed any kid. It built an attitude in me that far outlasted that strategy as a way to help young people.

The world looks different when you go through it determined to find something good in it that other people are missing. My friend Beth Royal may be one of the best at this that I've ever seen. She's constantly sharing stories about the good she discovers in her daily adventures. She lives with an unrelenting stubbornness that she is not going to miss a single chance to look upon beauty.

Some days, I can hear God saying to me, "catch me doing something right." He says that not because he's looking for an "atta boy God" directed toward Him, but because he knows that's the perfect lens for me to look through to discover the best me.

Because make no mistake, we are at our best when we are looking for goodness.

Tons of surveys and research tell us our society is as unhappy as it's ever been. There are unprecedented levels of suicide and depression and addictions and just general unhappiness. There are unprecedented levels of people not finding the goodness in the land of the living.

You know one thing I noticed when I started playing that game of catching them doing something right? I noticed the kids and other counselors started playing the game too.

People want to be around someone who is determined to find the good in unexpected places. People want to BECOME someone who can find good in unexpected places.

The key to the game is intention. What do I intend to find?

We will all take this day on. How do I intend to approach it?

Will I just take what comes without even thinking about how I'll approach it?

Will I go through this day committed to finding every little thing that is out of place and not a good fit for this world?

Or will I go out the door with the intent to find goodness? And when I feel myself being drawn away from that intention, will I hear God whisper "catch me doing something right?"

What will you find right in the land of the living today? I'd love to hear it.