Goodfinder Trait

Recently, a research team studied the profiles of one hundred people who had scored highest on testing that measured personal happiness. Of all the traits among these successful, stable and highly content people, only one similarity was found. The common denominator was that they were all "goodfinders".

In other words, regardless of their different backgrounds, they each exhibited the ability to find the good in situations or people. Since happiness is a basic goal for all of us, let's review some of the ways we can become goodfinders and perhaps reap the rewards that this wonderful virtue brings.

1. Acknowledge the Good in Yourself

Most critical people are this way because of a basic dislike of themselves for some reason or other. God forgives us through Christ (Acts 2:38) and because He does we have a right to forgive ourselves for all of our sins. You can't find the good in others if you don't practice finding the good in yourself first.

2. Look for the Good in Others

The bad in people cries out to be noticed. It requires a little more effort to actually see the good in others or in situations at times. Recognizing the good in others requires us to look beyond the obvious and continue to search in order to get to the good stuff in someone's life.

3. Celebrate the Good

Gossip is fun but not constructive or edifying. Choose to celebrate the good you find and shower a blessing on the others as well as yourself.

Goodfinding is really God-finding. It brings happiness because it seeks to find not the ugliness of sin in others but the image of God that still exists in all men and is a joy to behold.