The thing I disliked the most as a teacher was grading papers. I knew that I had to assign homework in religion in order to base a grade on knowledge of our subject, but still, I really disliked grading. I would look at the 150+ papers I had to grade and just cringe. Not because I didn't want to see what the students knew, but because grading papers meant, I had to find what was wrong. I had to look at the negative aspect of their knowledge and there were a few that had a lot of negative marks on their papers. It was the hardest part of teaching for me. Because of the way I ran the class, I wanted to make sure that the positives were pointed out as well. Yes, I graded them. And yes, there were papers with a lot of negative marks -- it wasn't fun at all.
During hard times in our economy, families, work, etc., we tend to dwell on the negatives. We see where things are messed up or where things just didn't go right. When we talk about our lives, we dwell on what could have been or what is going wrong. It is easy for us to see the negative marks and that is all we share. Negative marks are easy to share with others or easy to ask people to pray about. Negative marks are easy to use as an excuse for lack of service to God or reasons why we might not serve our Lord. Negative marks can bring down a person and a church. It is during the hardest times, that the church is the strongest. We have the opportunity to share and thank God for the things we do have. We have things that God has provided to us. We have the opportunity to worship and praise His name. Why not, share that...share the positive marks. We should be thanking God for the gifts that He has given us. For the food on the table, people who love us, the opportunity to worship, and much, much more. When things are bad, you have to also look at the positive -- you have to be thankful for your blessings. It is positive marks that lift people's spirits and helps refocus our own hearts. It is the positive marks that show our Lord how much we are thankful for the blessings He has given. Yes, negative marks happen, but allow God to show you how He has blessed you and then...thank Him!
