The idea of wearing “rose colored glasses” is ubiquitous in the English speaking world. This idiom is found in everything from literature and music to our everyday conversations. And everyone knows that the one looking through rose colored glasses is an optimist.
Although there are exceptions, in our culture the one who looks through rose colored glasses is generally considered to be either naïve or complacent. To use an even older figure of speech, they are “painting a rosy picture.” They are like the baroque painter who adds extra flowers to brighten up a landscape. They are not realistic. It is better, we believe, to see everything just as it is – in black and white if at all possible.
For my part, I like the view afforded by rose colored glasses. But not for reasons suggested by the turn of our English phrase. I believe that our disposition to find or discover certain things in the people, relationships, events, and circumstances that make up our personal environment very much determines what our life experience will be. And I owe this opinion not to Shakespeare or Milton, but to a far older and wiser soul: Solomon.
In Proverbs 11:27, Solomon observes that:
He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.
If I choose to constantly look at what is wrong with something or someone, it is only a matter of time before that person or thing appears to me as an undesirable personality or object. And it is a short step from there to that person treating me as if I consider them a poor specimen of humanity; that object becomes worthless in my eyes – mere trash to be disposed of.
But if I choose to look for the good in all that surrounds me, I will in turn be increasingly impressed with the circumstances in which I find myself. I will tend to complain less, be easier to please, be quick to praise others. I will generally be a more agreeable sort of fellow; I will hear myself saying “please, and “thank you” more often.
Although Solomon speaks of looking for good and looking for evil rather than seeing things through rose or jade tints, both figures of speech require us to think about how we filter our value judgments about our experiences. Are we optimistic and quick to find good? We will be blessed. Are we pessimistic and quick to spot weakness and failure? We will be cursed.
Kind of a scary thought, isn’t it?
As I write this note, December is coming to a close. I will be leaving my office in a few short hours and when I next sit behind my desk it will be a new year. And I wonder what I will see next year? When Kerrie and I got married over twenty years ago, we received as a gift a book entitled Devotions for Couples by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. I no longer have that book, but the authors shared a metaphor that I still remember: both the buzzard and the bumble bee spend their days flying around looking for something to eat – and they typically find it. The buzzard finds something dead, the bee finds something sweet.
In this new year will you be a buzzard or a bumble bee? Will you look for good or be an expert in noticing evil? What color will your glasses be?
Your Pastor,
Bob Bjerkaas
N.B. I think that the Raineys’ book Devotions for Couples has been re-released under a new title: Moments Together for Couples – as suggested by the link above.