Always look on the bright side of life?

This morning, my children got up - and having had a brief cuddle in bed with us - went downstairs to find something more interesting to do.  Halfway down the stairs, they paused, and looked out of the window.  This is the interchange I heard...:

Nathan: "Look Joel, it's a lovely day."
Joel: "But there's grey clouds, and it's been raining."
Nathan: "Look, it's a lovely day; it's not snowing!"
Joel: "Ahh. It doesn't look lovely to me; but you're right - it's not snowing..."

I love it when you get to overhear a bit of what goes on in your children's heads.  Especially when they don't know you're listening...

As I lay in bed, I mused about their differing perspectives on the same view. 

Nathan does seem to be a die-hard optimist.  I guess this is partially just down to being three, but not entirely.  His outlook on life does tend to be sunny.  He has a gift of being able to see the positive in things, as evidenced by the above conversation.  He's also very encouraging; last week at church, I was playing the guitar and leading the worship; we sang one of Nathan's favourite songs.  In the brief pause at the end, Nathan exclaimed (at classic 3 year-old volume - ie loud): "That was great Mummy, Well done!"

There's something great about receiving encouragement from someone too young to have learnt how to be economical with the truth... You know it must be genuine.

I think Nathan has probably got his positive and optimistic outlook on life from me.  All that celebrating small victories has rubbed off on him I guess.  I know I've said this many times before, but when you're parenting small children, you never know when the next big victory is going to come - it might be ages; so celebrating the little ones is vital for the mental health I think... "You put your socks on yourself!...HIGH FIVE!"

Joel is very much a realist.  He lives in the real world at all times; and at five - going on thirty-five - you can already trust his assessment of a situation to be reliable.  Joel lives in a very black and white world, and not just because he's colour blind...  He doesn't like uncertainty, or maybe, or possibly, or in a bit... He likes empirical, yes/no, and today we'll be leaving at 16:38  which means we'll be staying here for another 98 minutes.

This doesn't mean that he can't be encouraging; it just means that he'll do it in his own way - and entirely in line with his view of the world.  No exaggeration allowed...  This does mean that any positive comment from him carries even more weight.  On the day when I score 9.3 out of 10 for the evening meal that I cooked (you see - empirical!) like I did yesterday, I know that I really did do well...

I think there's a balance to be struck... Can you be an optimistic realist?  I think so.  I hope that I am...

And there's the thing: Hope.  Not some sort of airy fairy optimism that hasn't got any roots or substance, but hope, which can look down the barrel of the difficult thing - and hope anyway, knowing that all things are possible with God.  In a well known passage from 1 Corinthians 13 it says:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

I think God probably is an optimistic realist...  What do you think?