“People with good sense…earn esteem by overlooking wrongs”

When someone spends their time trying to find the wrongs versus the rights and spends an inordinate amount of time trying to find the defects in something that overall is very good, we might hear this saying, “stop trying to find the hole in the doughnut”. From my experience there are many people at work who like to spend their time trying to find the hole in the doughnut and they miss all of the good in the activities and results around them because they turn their focus towards the negative and the activities that might have been done better, but in totality, don’t mean much. But, these people do have an impact on others around them when they keep searching for the hole and they miss the opportunity to provide praise and positive reinforcement to others around them for a job well done. Whenever we run up against these people it adds stress to our day and we can end up feeling like with these people we have to work to not lose versus work to win. I worked alongside a person like this once and I dreaded each meeting with him. I knew going into the meeting that he would spend all of the time we had trying to find what was wrong versus right and at the end of the meeting I would come out with a list of unimportant things that I would have to go chase down with answers, etc. He did this because it was his nature to want to throw the wrench in the works and he thought that this was his value-add. And because he did it to everyone, everyone felt the same about him. He loved to focus on the hole in the doughnut.

We are told that we aren’t to be these kinds of people. In Proverbs 19:11 it says, “People with good sense…earn esteem by overlooking wrongs”. This doesn’t mean that we are to turn our heads and ignore those things that are wrong and hurtful to others, but it does mean that we are to accept that no one who walks this earth, other than Jesus was, can be perfect and we need to have an understanding nature towards others. In his book, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling, Andy Crouch says, “If we are known mostly for our ability to poke holes in every human project, we will probably not be known as people who bear the hope and mercy of God”. Amen! Today as you complete the workweek, think about your attitude towards others when they bring you their work. This next week see if you can ignore the holes in the doughnut and instead focus on the good of the whole. What others see from you will be different and definitely noticed!

Reference: Proverbs 19:11 (New Living Testament)