It takes a mature person to be able to see the good and bad in everyone. It is not mature to hold to a philosophy that we should only always see the good in everyone.
When we choose to only see the good we become undiscerning, lacking good sense that could save us from engaging in foolishness.
The "Pollyanna" attitude makes for a good television story but is not very honest or useful in real life.
Pollyanna was the story of a little girl who only saw the good in everyone. She foolishly lied to people to manipulate them into being nicer people to one another.
Many of us were raised on the saying, "if you can't say anything good don't say anything at all." Sadly, even though that sounds real nice, it taught many people to ignore sin, pretend someone is not evil when they do mean things and excuse every form of mal-adjustment.
When we are taught to only see good, we must pretend a lot, as though the sin or evil we see is something other than what it is. Nothing is fixed when we think like this. There are many problems in the world and there are many problem people, we must see things in truth, rather than fantasizing about how we would like things to be, we can bring solutions to problems, but only as long as we walk in truth.
3 John 1:3-4 "…3 For I was overjoyed when the brothers came and testified about your devotion to the truth, in which you continue to walk. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
No comments:
Post a Comment