[social_warfare]How many times have you gone to look up a new restaurant or product, see the reviews, and
get excited because they have pretty good reviews? Once you start to read the reviews you notice a few b
ad ones that have nothing to do with the actual restaurant or product, but the majority of the reviews ar
e good. You may or may not pay attention to the bad reviews, but you put the said product in your cart a
nd continue to see if you can find something better. A few weeks ago, I decided to surprise my husband and do a
little updating of our home. I tackled our kitchen cabinets, painted our walls, and pulled up carpet to
put down vinyl flooring. I had a really good time doing it too. Took me a little less than 2 weeks f
rom start to finish and I loved every minute of it. I woke up, worked on my cabinets till they were done,
and then started the floors while the last of the cabinet doors were drying.
Every morning my kids woke up to the house being even more complete and
were so encouraging along the way. I was actually shocked at how positive they were
when they came downstairs and saw me working.
It was almost like they were pretty proud of me.
The day comes for my husband to come home and I just knew he was going to love it. I had the house a
ll together, cleaned and shiny and new. Everything in it’s place, even more so than before he left.
I go to the airport to pick him up and tell him I have a surprise for him
and we have to enter through the front door, no
t the garage like we normally do. We pull up and he slowly opens the door, he looks in
the house and it’s dark. Everyone is hiding. He walks in and doesn’t realize the house is
different until he sees the kitchen and the first thing he asks is, “who paid for this?!”
I thought he was going to look around
and see everything that was done and take it in, but he didn’t do that.
In front of my sisters, and our kids, the second thIng out of his mouth was,
“I don’t like it! I don’t like any of it.” Do you know how I felt after hearing those words?
It took everything in me not to cry in front of everyone that was in my house welcoming
my husband home after being gone for 6 weeks. I couldn’t believe his response at all!
Everyone in the house got quiet and was like, “WHAT?! What don’t you like about it?!”
He said, “I don’t like the white cabinets and the paint looks purple.”
My sister’s looked at me with the I’m sorry face and they proceeded to leave.
I could tell they felt bad because their whole demeanor changed once my husband expressed
how he felt about the new look. I know what you’re thinking, maybe he didn’t like what I chose.
NOPE! We talked about everything we were going to do in our house when we were going to update it.
We wanted white cabinets, new floors, and gray paint on the wall.
I even showed him colors of the flooring and asked which one he liked before picking it out.
The way he expressed his dislike to us, hurt all of our feelings. I think everyone felt
bad except my youngest, Eryn, who missed him like crazy, who stayed up with him
while he tried to get his car to start. I went to bed feeling defeated. I mean, super defeated.
I didn’t expect the man I love, my husband, my best friend, to respond they way he did. It hurt bad.
So bad, I told myself I wasn’t going to do another project.
Being super proud of myself, I decided to post my endeavors on Facebook.
The way everyone responded was so positive.
I thought, my own husband couldn’t say 1 nice thing about what I did, but here is all these
people complimenting my hard work. One lady even went so far to ask me to help her do her house.
The thing about what I went through was that my spirit was crushed for a few days.
I don’t think I said more than a few words to my husband the whole time he was home.
I didn’t want to talk to him, look at him, be around him, cook for him…nothing.
He was lucky we had kids that needed to eat or he wouldn’t have had a cooked meal.
One morning, I was on my way out and needed to hear some encouragement to help get out of my funk.
I went to my podcasts and listened to Steven Furtick’s, It Had To Happen. While listening,
I began to talk to the Lord about how I was feeling and why I was feeling that way.
The Lord says to me:
The work you did was never meant for Aaron to approve.
It was meant for you to show yourself that you could.
Don’t let one bad review ruin your passion.
Not everyone will understand why you do what you do, but know that I put that passion inside of you.
That’s why you can’t get it out of your head
That’s why you enjoy it so much That’s why
you are constantly looking for your next project.
This is the thing you’d do, if you didn’t get paid for it.
Stop allowing the one bad thing someone says erase all the good things others have said about you and your
work. Be proud of yourself even when others aren’t. After pondering that for a while, I had to let go of the
negativity I was feeling for my husband. I had to let God soften the blow and focus on my accomplishments
and not let that one bad review spoil all the other good reviews I did get.
What are some ways you can push past negative reviews?
