Cover me, Lord, with Your Presence!

There's a line from an old song that goes like this:  "You've got to accentuate the POSITIVE...eliminate the NEGATIVE...and don't mess with MR. IN BETWEEN!"  Well, I had to learn that lesson the hard way!

Many years ago (in my early 30's), I spoke at an Ohio state convention for The American Association of Teachers.  Evaluations were handed out after each speaker spoke and copies were given to the speaker.  I started to read my evals, and one of the first ones I read was very critical in one area.  It read--"You should dress better!"  (This particular eval came from a lady who wore designer suits and was quite well-to-do.)  Her comments threw me for a loop...her condemning words stopped me in my tracks!  She JUDGED the "outer wrapper" rather than the contents!

After reading her eval, I felt like a complete failure; I became dejected, discouraged, and quite depressed.  I shut down!  However, a few weeks later I crawled out of my dark corner and had built up enough courage to read the rest of the evals.  And they were all POSITIVE!!!

We are so prone to look at the "outer appearance"...what a person looks like rather than who they are!  We look at credentials and titles rather than if they are honest, integral, loyal, etc.  We are more impressed with how much stuff they have (property and portfolios) rather than seeing the value of the person themselves.  (Note:  The people chose Saul to be King because of his appearance whereas God chose David to be King because of what was in his heart!)

The POSITIVE in my life is Christ (who always lifts me up); the NEGATIVE in my life is the devil (who always puts me down); and MR. IN BETWEEN is my flesh (my human nature, which always wants to find fault)!  So remember this:

ACCENTUATE the POSITIVES...
                  ELIMINATE the NEGATIVES...
                          and don't mess with MR. IN BETWEEN!!!