Parting With Debbie Downer:
Learning to be Positive
Psalm 118:24
Debbie Downer Video Clip
In May of 2004, Saturday Night Live introduced the character of Debbie Downer to the world.
Debbie’s last name is taken from the Slang for Downer – which refers to someone who persistently adds bad news or negative feelings to a gathering, thus bringing down the mood of everyone around them.
In every skit, we find Debbie in a happy, joyful environment, and within moments she is bringing up horrible facts, or pointing out the negative in life…after every comment, you here the orchestra play…wah, wah…
The skit became an instant classic. People loved it because, as they say, comedy imitates life.
We all know people like Debbie. People who just bring others down. Sometimes we call them Debbie Downers, sometimes we call them Eeyore.
If they bring you down too much, you might not call them at all.
Maybe that personality describes you today. Maybe you tend toward the negative in life.
You’ve lost your joy, life never seems to work out for you, everywhere you look, you see unhappy tidings.
I have to admit, there are times in my life when I can get a little melancholy and see the glass as half empty, rather than half full.
About two months ago, I was telling a friend of mine about something that was going on in my life and in the middle of my story, she went…”wah, wah”.
I said, what was that for? She said, because you’re being a “Debbie Downer!”
She was right.
If that describes you today, then I want to encourage you to turn over a new leaf, starting this morning. With God’s help, you have the power to change your outlook.
Romans 12:2, says that we should be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind.”
Ephesians 4:23 says, “let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.”
Abraham Lincoln said, “A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.”
The question is: how we can become more positive in our lives.
Here are a few keys in choosing to be positive.
1. Ask God to help you
Dear God,
So far today, I’ve done all right.
I haven’t gossiped, and I haven’t lost my temper.
I haven’t been grumpy, nasty or selfish.
But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed and that is when I’m going to need a lot of help.
Life is difficult. We all have problems. We all have our battles to fight.
There are times that we feel so overwhelmed, we feel like we’re drowning.
But if you’re going to choose to live with a positive attitude, you’ve got to ask God for help.
In Chapter 4 of Philippians, Paul tells us to petition God with our requests.
In Chapter 3, Paul reminds us that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
2. Start your day off with the right mindset
Every morning, my grandpa wakes up and recites Psalm 118:24
“This is the day the Lord has made. [I] will rejoice and be glad in it.
It’s amazing what can happen in our lives when we are intentional about the way we chose to view life.
Everybody faces good days and bad days. How we choose to live will make all the difference.
“Attitude Is Everything” by Francie Baltazar Schwartz
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood.
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it’s not that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line—It’s your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business—he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers.
While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices—I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.
"Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued,
"The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ’He’s a dead man. " I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. ’Yes,’ I replied.
The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ’Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ’I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
2 Corinthians 10:5 – Take captive every thought.
Chuck Swindoll. "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on Life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, or say or do. Attitude is more important than appearances, giftedness, or skill. Attitude will make or break a company --- a church --- a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude that we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people act a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude --- I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."
3. Focus on the blessing in your life.
Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”
Most of us have a pretty good life.
• We have a roof over our heads.
• We rarely lack food or water
• Most of our basic needs are met; in fact, most of us don’t even lack the things we want
• We live in the greatest nation in the world
• We have friends
• We can worship in freedom, without fear
But sometimes we tend to be Debbie Downers. Instead of embracing this amazing life God has given to us, we think about how much better things SHOULD be. And we begin slipping into depression.
Two elderly women went to an orchestra concert. On the way home one asked the other, “How did you like it?” The other woman said, “The way the first violinist blew his nose after the first selection just ruined the entire evening for me.”
Some people miss the entire concert of life because they focus on the wrong thing.
Charles Dickens said, “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
4. Do Things that Lift you up
The worst thing you can do is think on things that bring you down. If you are constantly thinking about sad things, guess what? You’ll be sad.
I’m was talking to my cousin one time on the phone…he asked me how I was doing?
I said, “I am so sad. I just broke up with this girl that I really liked and I can’t get her off of my mind.”
He said, “Tell me about your day.”
I said, “Well, this morning, I went for a walk and thought about how much she meant to me. Then I went to a romantic comedy and thought about all that I had lost and how alone I am. On the way home, I listened to Our Song three times and just remembered the good times.”
My cousin said, “Wow! And what are you doing right now?”
“I’m just going over a few of the love letters that she wrote to me. I just wish I could stop being so sad!”
And he said, “Are you an idiot!!!”
Friends, If you are filling your mind with negative things or listening to music or watching movies that are sad, depressing, or generate negative thoughts and feelings, you’ll feel negative or sad.
Garbage in, Garbage out.
The reason I love Louie Lamoure books is because there is always a happy ending:
• Good guy meets girl, finds old map to hidden treasure
• Enter bad guy: Bad guy beats up good guy, takes the girl, steals the treasure map
• Good guy pulls himself up by his bootstraps. Beats bad guy, wins the girl, and finds the treasure.
What’s there not to like.
Nothing lifts me up more than going to God when I need Him most.
I’ll never forget one day in grad school when I was really struggling. I had just broken up with a girl that I had been seriously dating and was contemplating marrying. I was walking around Cincinnati’s campus when I came to a prayer Gazebo.
There, nailed to the wall was a Bible verse.
1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
If you want to be positive, then focus on things that will lift you up.
Give your worries to God…there are several ways you can do that:
• Worship CD
• Prayer Walk
• Read your Bible
• Listening to an uplifting message on your IPOD
• Go Serve someone who needs ministering too
5. Laugh
While on maternity leave, a woman from our office brought in her new bundle of joy. She also had her seven-year- old son with her. Everyone gathered around the baby, and the little boy asked, "Mommy, can I have some money to buy a pop?"
"What do you say?" she asked.
Respectfully, the boy replied, "You’re thin and beautiful."
The woman reached in her purse and gave her son the money.
There is a healing power in laughter.
Yiddish Proverb - What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
When I’m asked to do a funeral, I try to bring the family together to talk about the life we will be celebrating. Most of them are grieving and hurting. There are tears to go around.
But no one wants to be remembered like that, so I ask them to tell me stories about their loved one. Good stories. As the stories pour out, tears of sadness turn into tears of laughter.
And people, for a few moments, are able to just breath again.
Proverbs 17:22, “A Cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones…”
Do things that will make you laugh. Go to a funny movie. Go hang out with the funniest person you know. Find the humor in life again and allow yourself the opportunity to simply breath.
Winston Churchill said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
Conclusion:
“This is the day the Lord has made. [I] will rejoice and be glad in it.
