The Good Report

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8, NLT)

We are a homeschooling family. Recently, I had gotten in a bad rut with my girls. Throughout the day, I fixed my thoughts on and had been keeping mental notes of the character issues in my children that I had dealt with that day. (The opposite of 1 Corinthians 13:5.) Then, I would take my mental list to our principle, Dad, who addressed each point with our children. (The opposite of 1 Corinthians 13:5, multiplied.)

It seemed as if we were addressing the same character issues every day. What were we doing wrong?  (The opposite of Matthew 6:33.) We, as parents, were working so hard to insure our children were being educated while at the same time producing godly character but my mental list seemed to be getting longer and we were dealing with issues every day! (The opposite of Philippians 4:6)

One morning, after my quiet time with the Lord, I saw something that has transformed our homeschool (as well as our family). I had finished devotional and prayer time so we were about to start our homeschooling day. I reached for my iPod to turn on our music so we could start school and as I touched the "shuffle" button, Mynista's most recent album, "The Good Report" popped up.

That was it!!! GLORY!!! (Psalm 50:15)

I was meditating on everything we needed to correct instead of what we were all doing really well. How did I fall into that ugly rut?! I needed to stop fixing my thoughts on the bad report and fix my thoughts on the good report!

The first thing I did that morning, was grab a blank piece of notebook paper. I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. Throughout the day, I made a list of everything my girls did really well. I listed how well they handled their new concepts, areas they've shown improvement in, in other words...I only documented their, "Good Report". (1 Corinthians 13:7) If they struggled in an area, I focused on what they did well in the struggle.

I have to admit, more than once, I wanted to say, "Oh yeah?! Well, just wait until your dad reads what I'm about to write!" But I kept reminding myself, "I am on a mission! I am on a mission! I AM ON A MISSION!" I had to persevere because it was so tempting to include negative issues in our good report but I was on a mission! (1 Corithians 13:7) I truly believed God had given me a path and I was determined to follow it. (Proverbs 3:6)

That evening, when Mike came home, I handed him the paper. He played along perfectly (even though he had no idea what it was). He jumped and said, "Wow! LOOK at this Good Report!" Our girls ran to see what was in the good report! My whole family was so excited!

We've been using "Good Reports" daily for about a month. I no longer keep a mental list. Instead, our family enjoys our evening together discussing our good report. Our girls are excited about school and look forward to discussing their good report with him every day. And he really enjoys that time with our girls.

It really blesses me to see how 

focusing on the positive 

has eliminated the negative.

It also blesses me that even though I had not pre-empted Mike, he knew exactly what to do when He saw the good report. (Ephesians 5:1)

All this made me think...what IF we all were to focus on the positive in every relationship God has blessed us with?? Home! Church! Work! What if, instead of complaining about something that isn't quite perfect at home/church/work, we focus on the positive aspects of home/church/work? What if, even though no one pre-empts us, we know exactly what to say/do? (Ephesians 5:1) Let's take it one step further. What if, when someone comes to us with a bad report, we refuse to agree with it but instead, point them in the direction of a good report. Instead of being a multiplier of negative, let's be a magnifier of good! We are on a mission!

I know...I can hear it now...but there are REAL issues to be resolved. Dads have to be involved in daily child rearing. Hey, I get that. So let's resolve the issues in a positive way and focus on what the other person does really well! (Proverbs 15:1) Let's focus so hard on the positive that there is no room left for negative! I believe as we do that, dad's efforts in daily child rearing will look a lot different. At least it has in my house. I'd even venture to say, home/church/work would look a lot different as well.

What about you? Like me, has the negative aspects of your life overtaken the positive? If so, I say, "Get out of that rut!" You will be so thankful you did! (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

" No one can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."- Zig Ziglar


Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for every reader right now to see and be thankful for all the good in their lives. I thank You for making our path straight and teaching us how to let our light so shine! I pray for relationships right now. Father, I ask You to quicken our spirits and teach us to be more like You and always operate in love. Show us even more, and empower us to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love is!


(Ephesians 3:18)

* Disclaimer: Obviously an abusive/neglectful relationship does not fall into the realm of this blog post.