There is good in bad...

I have recently come across different experience with people of different characters than me. Few made me nervous because my conversations with them left me feel very "dump", "inexperience" and "not up to their standards". My response to them showed the strong character in me, which can lead up to anger...I end up not wanting to say much with them...

In addition to all these, I have found people's behaviours very interesting too. These days, we emphasized a lot on "talking things out", saying our rights which sometimes lead us to loose our respect for others. We become very petty with the smallest things that people do and say and jump on others, sometimes not giving space for others to breath. Should that be the right behaviour? So no matter how good we have been to others in the past, one single mistake can make us forget all good things. We are better at seeing negative things than being positive.

But are all negative things bad or a wastage? I used to think that way till one day I stumbled upon something which I could remember until now. I have always thought that bad means bad, I do see that sometimes good can come but most of the time I can pretty negative. When Sasha and I were in Russia, we would get frustrated over buying milk because by the time we come home, we find that it is spoilt. Then we have to walk 15 mins to the shop and buy another one. It's not so fun to walk 1/2 hour to and fro especially during cold winter time. We would threw spoilt milk so many times till one day on of Sasha's friends gave us a recipe to make pancakes out of spoilt milk. I was shocked (ha ha city girl..lah) to make food out of spoilt milk. Nevertheless we tried and guess what it turned out to be very nice pancakes and we didn't get any stomachache...

After a while, I laughed because I learnt a lesson from spoilt milk. Nothing that is bad is a waste or no good. No one is so bad even if there are mistakes that we cannot accept again as good. No situation is so bad that no light will shine through it. There is always good in everything. That's why we serve a God who is abundant in grace and love. God does not look at a bad person and say he is no good. In fact, he picks him up and gives him a chance to rise again. God knows how to see good in the messiness of our lives. In fact he choose to use the foolish to shame the wise. God is a great God who forgives and specializes in turning bad into good.

In this sense, shouldn't we as Christians also be behaving Christlike in our dealings with people and situations...to practice grace, forgiveness and love.

Today I stand amaze again at God's amazing grace and ashamed of the times I have failed to exercise love and grace to others. But I know God will continue to help me to see good in bad...

May we be people of grace and love...