No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by his own fruit.

Luke 6:43-44, ESV

 

What do people see, when they look at you? Do they see someone who generally looks at the bright side of life, or do they see someone who always seems to find some impending disaster looming on the horizon?

 

Ronald Reagan told the story of a couple with twin boys. Though they were nearly identical in their physical traits, they were as different as night and day in their personalities. One was a died in the wool pessimist. It didn't matter how good he had it, he was always gloomy and looking for the worst to happen, The other was an eternal optimist. No matter what the circumstances, he always saw things as problem-free opportunities. 

 

The parents viewed both boys as having necessary strengths in these worldviews but were concerned that their inability to see both sides of a situation as problematic. So, they came up with a plan.

 

They decided one Christmas to give gifts to their sons that would allow them to see the other side of life. For their pessimist, they filled one room with toys and gifts that would be the envy of any young man. For the optimist, they filled a shed with horse droppings acquired from a nearby stable. They were convinced that this plan would work, that it would show each one of their children that there was both good and bad in life, and they needed to learn to deal with either possibility.

 

Christmas came and they directed their boys to their respective rooms and waited for the results. Sure enough, they heard immediate results: From one room came whoops of delight. From the other came uncontrollable sobbing. But when they went into the room filled with toys, they were shocked to discover that it was this son who had been doing all the crying. "What's the matter? Don't you like the toys?" The boy replied that he did, very much in fact. Then why, they wanted to know, was he crying? He said, "This toy is going to break. This has batteries that will run down" He then proceeded to go around the room to each toy and tell his parents what terrible thing that was surely going to happen for each of his beloved toys.

 

Stunned, they then proceeded outside to the shed where they discovered their other son digging through the manure and shouting with delight. "What has come over you?' they demanded. "What are you doing?" His response caught them by surprise: "I'm looking for the pony!"

 

And there you have it. Some people, no matter how good they might have things, are always looking for something to ruin the good they have. As a result, they never learn to appreciate the blessings God has given them and they lead miserable existences indeed. And others, though possessing many excellent traits that are to be appreciated and admired, sometimes will end up in drastic circumstances because they are unable to see the danger of getting too close to the filth that sometimes surrounds them.

 

So we all, whether optimists or pessimists, need to have a heathy dose of reality. We need to stop looking for the sky to fall in every situation and learn to appreciate and enjoy the blessings that God has given. On the other hand, while we can see that the life of the optimist is superior in just about every facet of life, we do need to have our eyes open to the fact that there are some situations - whether dangerous or sinful, that we simply need to avoid. Otherwise, we might find ourselves in a world filled with evil, simply because we never heeded the danger long enough to try to change the situation.   

 

God has given us a very good life, and we should enjoy each blessing that He has given us. Even in bad times, we need to have the optimists understanding that these are but incidents on the road to Heaven. However, we still need to be realistic enough to avoid the bad and to never be tolerant of sinful behavior. Treating someone who has sin in their life as if they are okay will eventually harm them, just as looking negatively at every situation will eventually defeat us before we even get started.

 

We do need to look at both sides of life, and then we can become the types of people that God has always intended for us to be!