You Find What You Look For

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 2, 1910

You Find What You Look For

“HE that hath a froward heart findeth no good.” Whoever would be happy must make up his mind to see only the good in others, to hunt for the beautiful things in their characters, and to ignore the ugly things; to look for harmony and to avoid discord.

To hold the loving thought, as a mother does toward her children, develops the better side. The delicate flower of manhood or womanhood will not blossom in the foggy, chilly atmosphere of hatred, of jealous envy and condemnation. It must have the warm sun of love, of praise, of appreciation, of encouragement, to call out its beauty and to produce the perfect flower.

Never allow yourself to condemn or form a habit of criticizing others. No matter what they do, hold toward them perpetually the kindly thought, the love thought. Determine to see only that which is good and sweet and wholesome and lovely in them. Try to see the man or woman that God intended, not the warped, twisted, and deformed one which a vicious life may have made; and you will generally find what you look for.

You will never find the straight by looking for the crooked, or holding the crooked thought in mind. If you are constantly criticizing or finding fault, instead of praising or appreciating, you will ruin your power of seeing the beautiful and the true, just as a habitual liar loses the power to tell the truth.

If you habitually hold the deformed thought, the ironical, the skeptical, the pessimistic, the depreciative thought, you will ruin your ability to see or appreciate merit, or what is good and true.—Northwestern Christian Advocate.