Celebrate the Good of Others - Psalms 35 - 4/19/2011

27 Let those who favor my righteous cause and have pleasure in my uprightness shout for joy and be glad and say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, Who takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.

Sometimes it feels like we have forgotten how to celebrate each others acts of uprightness or we just don't praise people for doing good or doing a good job. I work in the retail and I even spent a few years working as a supervisor.

Do you know how many times I received complaints about the job of the associates on my team? Countless... How about the number of times I received a complaint because the employee was doing their job as per instructions? More than I can recall. How about the number of times I received a complement for an employee? In four years of supervision my high guess is 18 times I am think the number was actually closer to under a dozen.

Have you ever been in a restaurant and had the waiter or waitress make the dinning experience great? What about if their was an issue with the order but their service still made it a great experience? I remember a time that we had this happen. The chief had made an error on my order but the waiter had caught it himself and informed us that it was being resolved. So he took care of the issue and didn't charge us for our drinks. When we were done I asked for the manager at the hostess counter. I saw her go ask talk to the manager and he looked flustered and prepared for a chewing. When he came over I spoke highly of our waiter and didn't complain but spoke praise and thankfulness for the service we received. As I spoke I could see the fear and anxiousness leave the manager.

Sometimes I feel we miss this very concept and practice too often in our churches and homes. All we see is how that person on the worship team missed that note, or how the usher looked too solemn, or how the Pastor preached about tithing, or how we don't like the flowers that got planted by the entrance, or etc... And what about in our home? When was the last time you praised your spouse for picking up in the bathroom? Praised your child for turning off the lights without being asked?

I may be making a bit of a stretch here but I think when we see the positive things being done by those around us, to us and for us God likes it when we speak highly of them. He likes it when we lift them up with praise and celebrate in joy with them for a good job. Yes there is a time for discipline and correction. We can see some good example of that in 1 and 2 Corinthians. But you will also see the boastful heart of Paul talking and celebrating the good and upright that they had also done and were doing.

I would like present a challenge to myself and everyone who reads this. Over the next few days as we work to Easter Sunday find somebody each day that you can celebrate with in their good actions. Tell then and tell God what a good job they did. Fill out a comment card, ask for a supervisor, write a thank you note or just smile and say thank you or great job.

It would be cool if people would post through out the week some of what they did and saw. So please come back and comment as we finish this week.