Bad Signs

Last week, while participating in a local march honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I saw some signs held by some people protesting this march. While the marchers were celebrating Dr. King’s legacy of peace and equality for all, the protesters were spreading their anti-Dr. King views. Their presence seemed so out of place and very much not consistent with what I understand Dr. King to have stood for.

At first, the appearance of these protesters took away from my celebratory spirit honoring a true American hero. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a few bad signs should not deter me from treasuring the special people and accomplishment in our lives.

For Christian singles, how often have we allowed a few “bad signs” to spoil our moments of celebration and stunt our opportunities of growth? In our interactions with each other, sometimes we spend too much time on a person’s negatives that we miss out on the chance to highlight and even enjoy their good points. No one of us is perfect, yet we seem to harp on each other’s imperfections.

Just like I had to take a second to refocus my thoughts on the positive achievements of Dr. King and divert them away from falling into the trap of negative attitudes being laid by the protesters, single Christians need to learn the art of taking a “spiritual breath.” Some of our parents used to tell us to count to ten before we said something we might regret or cause some damage that could not be reversed. For the sake of our relationships and our spiritual sanity, we need to recognize more of God in each other and be less quick to point out the devilish tendencies we all possess. All of our relationships will be better off if we learn how to pause before we react or say anything.

This is not to say that we walk around ignoring the bad things people do and over-emphasize their good qualities, but it just seems like if we are going to err, it should be on the side of nurturing and encouraging each other’s spiritual attributes.

Dr. Martin Luther said on several occasions that there is some good in the worst of us and some bad in the best of us. Accepting that fact, let’s focus more on building healthy platonic, family and romantic relationships based on our positive qualities. If God can look beyond our faults and still love us and not hold us hostage to our pasts, the least we can do is walk past the bad signs on our march to celebrate the Godly spirit in those we relate to.