Positive vs. Negative Thinking.. Are You Affecting or Infecting?

What does your lifestyle reflect?

Are you careful in what you do and say or does all sanity go out the window when you’re upset? You have most likely heard of the cliché’ “actions speak louder than words” throughout your lifetime.  Oh how true this certainly is and it’s imperative that we not only watch what we say and do, but also in what manner we say and do things.  Are you angry in your tone?  Do you call people names when angry?  Do you use hurtful body language to get your point across in the heat of a moment?  There are so many things that we do and say that can hurt others and actually leave emotional scars in that person.  But what you may not realize is that for every scar you leave on someone else, you have also just branded yourself.  Each time you lash out, you lose a vital part of your character and while you can get it back, it does take a fair amount of discipline and repentance.  How you treat someone else is a direct reflection of your own character. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.. your words have power with which you can bless and curse.  The thing we must keep in mind when it comes to our words and our actions is that we can affect and we can infect.  The most amazing thing I’ve learned about affecting and infecting is that no matter which you do, each can be done in a positive or a negative way.  You can say and do positive things and it will have a positive affect and actually infect the person on the receiving end with a positive response. 

The same is true with the negative side.  You can say and do negative things and it will have a negative affect and infect the person on the receiving end with a negative response.  Sometimes that negative response leads to physical violence and hurtful words thrown back at you and it turns into a vicious cycle.

 

So here’s my thought.. if negative breeds negativity and positive breeds positive responses then can a negative bring about a positive and can a positive bring about a negative response?  The answer may surprise you!

If you have someone lashing out in anger towards you and you treat them with kindness, gentleness of tone and a sweet and non-sarcastic smile, that person will actually begin to calm down.  Once they calm it’s usually pretty easy to have a conversation with them and get to the root of the problem.  So in this scenario you have just affected the negative person by staying positive.  Now you can move onto infecting them.  What this means is that you now have their attention and at this point they are more likely to listen to what you have to say.  So take this opportunity to plant some positive seeds that will infect their way of thinking so that they too can become a more positive thinker and use what you’ve just planted to help affect and infect others.

Now, we are going to turn the tables and see what happens.  Now you’re being positive in your thinking and you have a negative person downing everything you say and do. What happens?  That negativity is actually very strong. Negative speaking tends to rub off rather quickly on all those it touches as it can create doubts in your own mind.  This is why we should be wise and surround ourselves with positive thinkers and pray that the negative thinkers will learn to think positive.  We should not turn our backs but would do good to remember that while we may have already scaled that mountain, we too were once at the beginning and needed others to believe that we could change.

I love it when someone says they are praying for me!  I take people at their word because I know that when I say I’m praying or have just prayed for someone, I really took time to pray for them.  Therefore when someone tells me the same, I believe it.  It affects me and infects me when I hear positive things.  It can affect and infect me when I hear negative things.  This is why we are told to “guard our hearts and our minds”. 

When we get an infection of negative thinking in our minds, it poisons our hearts.  When our hearts are poisoned, our bodies act out of control and we do and say things we normally would not.  Keep in mind that people are always watching to see if you are who and how you say you are. 

Christians, this is very important!  You want to affect and infect in a positive way and not a negative.

So my questions for you are these.. are you affecting or infecting?  And in what way are you affecting and infecting?  Do you speak words that encourage and lift up or do you speak words that hurt and condemn?