Question: Is the glass half full or half empty?
The answer to that question will depend largely on a person's attitude -- optimist or pessimist.
I am an optimist, though, as a churchgoing man, I prefer to call it faith.
It amazes me the number of pessimists in the world, especially in Southern Illinois. I meet people almost daily who are so worried about their "half empty glass" they begin to have physical problems.
Some of their worries even border the ridiculous.
Why just recently a man came up to me and said I am worried I have cancer. I asked him why.
He told me he had watched a television show about skin cancer and he was worried about a spot on his arm.
I asked if he had been to the doctor. He told me he had and the doctor said it was nothing.
"Why are you worrying then," I asked him.
"What happens if the doctor is wrong," he replied.
"What happens if his right?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" came the reply.
"You are a half-empty-type of person who prefers to look for problems rather than solutions," I said. "You are worried about something that doesn't even exist."
The best way to handle this problem with people is ask them if they go to church. If they do, it makes it easier. I just quote to them Matthew 6: 25-34.
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: They neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
When worry comes against me -- and it does -- I just read that scripture over and over until I realize the glass is half full, and there's someone (Jesus) who is more than able to fill it.
|
|
|
Question: Is the glass half full or half empty?
The answer to that question will depend largely on a person's attitude -- optimist or pessimist.
I am an optimist, though, as a churchgoing man, I prefer to call it faith.
It amazes me the number of pessimists in the world, especially in Southern Illinois. I meet people almost daily who are so worried about their "half empty glass" they begin to have physical problems.
Some of their worries even border the ridiculous.
Why just recently a man came up to me and said I am worried I have cancer. I asked him why.
He told me he had watched a television show about skin cancer and he was worried about a spot on his arm.
I asked if he had been to the doctor. He told me he had and the doctor said it was nothing.
"Why are you worrying then," I asked him.
"What happens if the doctor is wrong," he replied.
"What happens if his right?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" came the reply.
"You are a half-empty-type of person who prefers to look for problems rather than solutions," I said. "You are worried about something that doesn't even exist."
The best way to handle this problem with people is ask them if they go to church. If they do, it makes it easier. I just quote to them Matthew 6: 25-34.
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: They neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
When worry comes against me -- and it does -- I just read that scripture over and over until I realize the glass is half full, and there's someone (Jesus) who is more than able to fill it.
