If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you!
“Appreciation literally means to raise in value. It’s the opposite of depreciation. Depreciation is what happens when you buy a new car and it drops in value as soon as you pull out of the car lot! Appreciation, on the other hand, means to raise in value. If you raise the value of your wife, you appreciate her. If you want to raise the value of those you serve with, you appreciate them. The more you appreciate a situation, the more it raises in value.” –Rick Warren
This quote reminds me of the field of Appreciate Inquiry, which perhaps can be summed up by asking, “What is good? How can we get more of that?” The verse above provides a tremendous truth: if we go looking for good things, particularly about a person, we will find good things about them. What does that tend to produce? Favor! A good relationship!
But the opposite is also true. When I look for evil, for what is wrong or bad or broken about a person, then I will find plenty of material to ruminate on.
Here is the amazing part: both can be true about the same person at the same time! Therefore, it is up to me to bring out the best in them: to find what is good and get more of that. That leaves both of us enjoying life a lot more!