the world isn't bad

why is the world bad? why is the world full of hatred? why does everything always seem like it's going wrong?

here's why: because we focus on the worst things that occur rather than the best things.

when you turn on the news you hear about shootings, taxes, missing children, police brutality, riots, protests, strikes, thievery, rape, drugs. these things are not bad to know about, but they are not the only things that go on in a day.

there are families coming together, not falling apart.

there are people getting promotions, not being fired.

there are athletes winning games, not losing them.

there are students acing tests, not failing classes.

there are children making friends, not feeling alone.

there are mothers birthing children, not aborting them.

there are fathers building cribs, not leaving them.

there are siblings holding their infant brothers, not crying over them.

there are grandparents teaching grandchildren their recipes, not despising the youth.

there are doctors saving lives, not ending them.

there are lawyers holding families together, not tearing them apart.

there are celebrities handing out money, not being greedy.

there are nurses bringing comfort, not abusing patients.

there are teachers who are actually teaching, not letting students do enough just to get by.

there are therapists who are healing people from the inside out, not making things worse.

there are landscapers making the earth more beautiful, not allowing it to be trashed.

there are waitresses making people smile, not making their long day harder.

there are cooks making amazing food, not poisoning people.

there are pastors bringing hope, not division and confusion.

i am not so ignorant as to believe that the latter parts of these statements don't happen on a regular basis. in fact, these things might even happen every day.

but the fact is that most things are going right. you won't have a good day every day. the world is full of sin and shame. but think about all of the things that had to go right in order for you to even be able to read this blog post. you had to wake up this morning. you had to be able to move and at least be able to grab your phone or computer. your technology of choice had to work. then it had to have internet access. then you had to be able to click on a link. then you had to be able to read.

that's already a lot of things having gone right, but i guarantee that you took those for granted. i take them for granted every day. and those are just things in order for you to read this blog post.

people do much harder things every day. people get out of bed and go to a construction site, or a church, or a corporation, or a restaurant and have harder things to worry about than their phones working. and most of the time things go the right way.

but for some strange reason, as humans, we like to focus on the things that are going wrong; this is probably because it puts a wrench in our plans, because of our nature for wanting to fix things and for things to go right.

maybe the things on the news aren't always the most upbringing or upbeat but hey, take some time to think about all of the things that had to go right in order for you to be home or sitting in a mcdonalds and be able to watch the news.

let's have more gratitude. let's be more grateful.