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became known as “Murphy’s Law,” which basically states, “Nothing is as easy as it looks; everything takes longer than you expect; and if anything can go wrong, it will—at the worst possible moment.” How negative! Who could enjoy life if they lived according to Murphy’s Law? They would always expect the worst, so they would probably get it!
    I believe God has laws that completely disagree with Murphy’s Law. The world may expect Murphy’s Law to operate in their lives, but we need to resist that kind of negative thinking and embrace God’s Law instead, which says something like this: “If anything can go right, it will; nothing is as difficult as it appears; everything is more rewarding than it appears; if anything good can happen to anybody, it will happen to me.”
    Negative thinking always produces a negative life. How much more could you enjoy your life if your thoughts agreed with God’s Law, not Murphy’s? God has a great life for you, one He wants you to enjoy thoroughly and live to the fullest. I challenge you to live by God’s Law and consistently fill your mind with positive thoughts.

    Think about It
    In what specific circumstance do you need to start believing God’s Law instead of Murphy’s Law?
     
     
    Don’t Let the Positive Become Negative

    See the Big Picture
    When we focus excessively on the negative elements of a certain situation to the exclusion of its good aspects, we are “filtering out” the positive and exaggerating the negative. Very few situations are 100 percent negative; most of the time, we can find something good in every circumstance, even if we have to be really diligent about it.
    Let’s say you are a stay-at-home mom with young children and your husband leaves the house for work each day. Your four-year-old colors on the walls, cuts holes in his new pants, kicks his sister, and spills grape juice all over your freshly cleaned carpet. Let’s also say he finally learned to apologize to his sister without being reminded, confessed to cutting his pants instead of saying “The dog did it,” makes an attempt to clean his room, and says you are the best mom in the whole world. To say he was absolutely horrible all day long and forget about his good moments would be filtering out the good, and it would leave your mind with nothing but negative thoughts. Though there certainly would have been some negatives about that day, it had its positive experiences too.
    I can’t emphasize too strongly how important it is that you resist the temptation to characterize something as totally negative or to focus excessively on negative aspects of a situation. Look at the situation as a whole and find something positive about it. That will help you become a positive person.

    Think about It
    What is the most negative situation in your life? Now, list three positive things about it. If you are not used to doing this it may stretch you but try anyway.
     
     
    Don’t Make It Personal
    Automatically blaming ourselves when something goes wrong or thinking everything that goes wrong is intended against us as individuals is called “personalizing” and it makes positive thinking very difficult. This happens often with young people on sports teams, when they miss the last shot, goal, or run of the game and feel they are solely responsible for a loss. They need to realize that both winning and losing are team efforts. It takes a whole team to win; it takes a whole team to lose. Even if one individual missed the last opportunity to win the game, there were many others missed along the way that added to the end result.
    Similarly, let’s say a group of women decide to gather for lunch and at the last minute, Julie cancels. If Suzie is one who takes everything personally, she will automatically assume Julie didn’t want to be with her, when in reality, Julie may have had a family crisis, an unexpected houseguest, or a dental emergency.

    Think about It
    When was the last time you blamed