Half Empty and Half Full

Is the glass half full or half empty? I have been thinking about lately my own attitudes and I realize that far too often I side with the “half empty” view of things. There is always so much more to do—whether in my work or in my home or in teaching my children—that I usually see and focus on what remains to be done instead of what has been accomplished. The former view is of course needed to some extent, but I know that especially in raising my children I need to be able to focus more on their progress instead of how far they still need to go. As I thought about this I realized that the Savior gave us an example to follow in 3 Nephi 17. After healing many of them, He invited the children to come and sit down around Him and He began to pray. Surprisingly, in that setting His first words to His Father were these: “Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel” (v14). Even though He was in the midst of a righteous group of Nephites and had just performed countless miracles among them, He still was thinking about all of God’s children and was troubled by the wickedness among so many peoples. He may have also been thinking about those Nephites and Lamanites who were wicked and had been killed by the destruction at His own death. For a brief moment, He seems to have been seeing the glass half empty because of His love for all.

               But the Savior did not dwell on the wickedness of the house of Israel for long. Instead, He prayed to the Father in words that cannot be written. And clearly His message in that prayer was not focused on anything negative since the people described how “no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father” (v17).  After praying, “so great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome” (v18). He then said to them, “Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full” (v20). He had turned His focus away from the wickedness of some in the house of Israel and instead rejoiced in the righteousness of this people before Him—He was seeing the glass half full and all were filled with joy because of it. I believe that is an example for us to follow: we need not dismiss the reality of the half-empty glass but rather should acknowledge what is not yet as it should be like the Savior did. But then our focus should be, especially as it relates to how we view others, on the progress that has been made and the joy that can come from that. For me this is particularly important as it relates to how I view my children and their progress spiritually, intellectually, and socially. I can easily become discouraged if I only consider how far they have left to go to become the people God wants them to become. But if, like the Savior, I can learn to acknowledge that but then focus on seeing them as He sees them now, I need not wait to say “my joy is full” because of who they are and the experiences we can have together today.