What Color are Your Lenses?

Several years ago my husband accused me of wearing rose-colored glasses and I took that as a complement!*S*  I really do try and see the best in people and in situations and although I slip up at times, I feel better when I stay positive.

We've all heard the saying about your glass being half empty or half full; it's all in how you look at things and I believe we can train ourselves to change our thoughts in order to see things in a positive way.  I choose (at least try to most of the time) to see things in the positive because it helps me feel happier and more hopeful.

In an article titled, The Spirit of Optimism by Gordon B. Hinckley ( New Era magazine, July 2001) Pres. Hinckley writes, ""We have every reason to be optimistic in this world.  Tragedy is around, yes.  Problems everywhere, yes....You can't, you don't build out of pessimism or cynicism.  You look with optimism, work with faith, and things happen."

We cannot change what is happening in the world or even what is happening in our communities and sometimes it's difficult to even change what's happening in our own homes, but we can change the way we look at it.(I'm not saying this is an easy thing to do, but I believe it is of utmost importance, at least to me, to stay positive for my own sanity) , but we can change how we look at it which will lead to feeling hopeful which will move us to positive action on our part which will then reinforce our hopeful feelings!(it's all connected, isn't it?*S*)

 "I am asking that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.  I am suggesting that as we go through life we 'accentuate the positive.'  I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good.....What I am suggesting is that each of us turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom we associate, that we speak of one another's virtues more than we speak of one another's faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears.  'When I was a young man and was prone to speak critically, my father would say: 'Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve."

                                                            ------Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley

 So, back to my original question:  what color are your lenses; or in other words, what do you see when you look at the world, and how is it working for you?