Focus on the Good

When I was a child, my mother had a set of sculptures resembling three human heads. One head had hands over the ears, one had hands over the eyes, and one had hands over the mouth. Of course, they depicted the phrase, “Hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil.” I have seen these images repeated many times since then, usually as the monkey heads from a Japanese proverb, which would have probably seemed a little less creepy to me when I was a small child. Apparently, there is no consensus about the full meaning or certain origin of these three images nor the phrase. At the very least, it causes us to reflect on the need to avoid evil and look for the good in things.

As I have lived my life, I have come to believe there are more people who lives their lives in a contrary manner to these images. It is not that they seek evil, but it is as if they “see no good, hear no good, and speak no good.” Gossiping is the way they pass the time, and they always seem to find the negative in people and situations. Being a good steward certainly means that we do not seek evil, but more than that, it means that we see the abundance of good things all around us. These gifts of God are big and little, profound and ordinary. By seeing the world in this way, we begin to change our personalities and our overall disposition. We always need to follow a new proverb: see all the good, hear all the good, and speak about the good. Amen.

— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS