Seek the Good

If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you! Proverbs 11:27

A year and a half ago, we brought home the sweetest little golden retriever puppy. Today Myla is nearly two, and she is a retriever through and through.

She carries toys from room to room. If she thinks we're bored, she'll proudly hold one in her mouth, inviting us to play. Sometimes she'll gently take hold of our wrist and tries to lead us where she wants us to go. And if we throw her ball into the backyard and she loses sight of where it landed, she'll lower her nose to the ground and search every inch of the yard until she finds it.

That's what retrievers do.

They find what they're looking for...

and they bring it back.

We do the same.

If we go looking for reasons to be offended, we'll find them.

If we search for things to criticize, compare ourselves to, complain about, or fear, this broken world never runs out of opportunities.

But the opposite is true as well.

When we intentionally look for God's goodness, we begin to notice His fingerprints everywhere. In unexpected kindness. In answered prayers. In strength we didn't know we had. In peace that defies our circumstances. Even in life's hardest seasons, His grace has a way of revealing itself to hearts that are looking for Him.

Seeking good doesn't mean pretending life is easy or ignoring what's hard. It means trusting that God is still at work, even when life isn't unfolding the way we hoped.

Because what we search for matters.

What we look for, we tend to find. What we find, we begin to carry. And what we carry eventually spills into the lives of the people around us.

Search for offense, and you'll carry resentment.

Search for what's wrong, and you'll carry criticism.

Search for reasons to fear, and you'll carry anxiety.

But search for God's goodness, and you'll carry something entirely different.

Gratitude. Hope. Peace. Grace.

Myla searches until she finds what she's looking for. Then she proudly brings it back.

So do we.

Make sure what you're bringing back is worth giving away.

You are loved!