Faversham Times: Thought For The Week
Published 13 September 2012

Are you a glass half-empty or glass half-full person? It was Winston Churchill who said: A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Being positive, remaining cheerful and looking for the best in everything makes life easier. The Bible reminds us that ‘a cheerful heart brings a smile to your face, while a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day’ and ‘a miserable heart means a miserable life, while a cheerful heart fills the day with song.’ (Proverbs 15)

I heard about two young children. The first, a boy, was always grumpy and complaining – a real pessimist. The other, a girl, was always bright and cheerful and could never see anything wrong with anyone or anything – a real optimist. Their parents were a bit worried about how they would end up coping in life. One Saturday, the father decided to buy every popular toy he could lay his hands on. He gave them to the grumpy pessimistic child. He also had a truck load of manure delivered to the garden shed for the optimist.

On Saturday afternoon, the parents found the pessimistic son sitting in his room sobbing away because he was afraid he would break the toys if he played with them. When they went out to the shed, there was their optimistic daughter having the time of her life burrowing around in the pile of manure.

‘Oh dad,’ she said, ‘I just know there’s a horse in here somewhere!’