AM I COLOR BLIND?
Vickey Pahnke>[email protected] > CES speaker, songwriter, author
My friend Brad is color blind. Once, while on speaking assignment
together, several of us were riding to the stake center where we were to
teach. En route, another friend and I busily pointed out buildings and
signs, asking Brad to try to identify the color. I was fascinated! Poor
Brad couldn't tell blue from purple, green from blue. How sad to go
through life unable to discern the true color of things! Then, later
that month, I went shopping. (I do that occasionally just to keep in
practice.) I found just the navy blue hand bag I had been looking for
and hurried to show it to my shopping buddy. "It's nice, " she said,
"but it's not navy-it's black."
"Well, of course it's navy," I responded.
I reexamined. She reexamined. We took it to the window to look at it in
the sunlight. It looked navy blue to me, yet my friend insisted it was
black. Then a thought struck me: Could I be color blind? Could it be
that what I see is different from what others perceive? Do we all see
things a little differently, colored by our attitude, our frame of mind
or spirit, our point of reference? Are we all a little bit "color blind"
from time to time? Maybe what I perceive is quite different from you --
even when we are looking at the same thing, or find ourselves in the same
situation!
What are we looking at? Is our perception as clear as it could be? Are
our eyes properly focused on the things of eternal importance?
Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, "If you look closely, you will be able
to see many so-called skeptics who keep one eye on the dikes of disbelief
and who seem to have a small rowboat nearby," (from Deposition of a
Disciple ). Surely, that skepticism which moves the eyes in the direction
of disbelief must exact a price ~ a view that cannot be available to
those who do not look with "an eye single to His glory" (Mormon 8:15).
It is amazing how many good, positive, pure things we can be blind to, if
we are not looking with an eye single to his glory (or at least doing our
best to filter out the negative, the ugly, the unimportant).
Prayer is a principle that, through expanded and more effective use, will
expand our vision and allow us to see things more clearly. Michael, my
middle son, is a dynamo. He is energetic and complicated and funny, a
whirlwind. Most people would never notice that he has health problems.
One night when he was only four years old, he awoke crying because of leg
pain. I went into his room to find him tense, curled up in pain. Rubbing
his legs, placing him in a tub of warm water, giving him pain reliever,
did nothing to help. I could see that I was not helping my son at all.
Then I was prompted to do what I should have done to begin with -- say a
prayer. Sitting on the edge of the bed with a tense, crying Michael is
my arms, I offered a short, simple prayer. I wanted him to feel better.
I also wanted him to know that Father would hear and would be there for
him at his time of need.
In what seemed no more than a couple of seconds, Michael relaxed. I
opened my eyes to see a calm, comfortable little boy. Without opening
his own eyes, he said, "Mom, would you say another prayer and thank
Heavenly Father?" For a Mom, those were beautiful words to hear. Then
he said, "Good night, Mom.... Good night, Heavenly Father," and he
drifted off in peaceful sleep.
Prayer was real to my four year old. It is my hope that prayer will
remain real to Michael now that he is fifteen......and when he is old
enough to have children and then grandchildren of his own. If so, he
will perceive things with much more discernment. The black and white
issues will not gray for him. He will spend less time being "color
blind" and the truth will be easier to see. He can "press forward having
a perfect brightness of hope" (2 Nephi 31:20) and waste no time or effort
looking at the dikes of disbelief. His vision will be sure. His life
will be blessed.
In Proverbs 29:18 we are taught that "where there is no vision, the
people perish." In context, this scripture refers to revelation. But
are we all not entitled to revelation to help steer us on a course that
will get us back to our heavenly home? That ability to view people,
places, and situations more clearly will save us from perishing in
unbelief.
The world is full of ugliness. But there is much beauty. There is pain,
but there is hope. I am going to continue to do my best to pray for a
more sure vision of things as they really are. And trust that my periods
of being "color blind" to the things that matter are fewer and more far
between!