Storm-colored glasses

I had a funny moment last Sunday that our teen girls are having a FANTASTIC time teasing me about.

Normally, I wouldn't voluntarily broadcast an embarrassing story for public enjoyment, but I actually took a couple of powerful lessons from it later on. So here we go.

Our daughters and I were on our way home from church, and I was driving with my favorite pair of sunglasses on. Stopped at a red light, I looked up at the sky. I was shocked to see that it looked solidly-covered with deep blue-ish gray clouds -- the kind that tell you to hurry and get inside because you are about to see lots of rain, and soon. 

I said, "Whoa. GIRLS. Look at the sky! This storm is gonna be a BIG one."

Their confused responses confused me.

"....(long pause)...Mom...? What do you mean?"

I pointed up and explained, "See that color of the sky?? Those are all clouds! Thank goodness we'll be home before it starts pouring!"

...more silence.

Lana, my more-ruthless (in a hilarious way) twin, asked with a slight chuckle in her voice, "Ummm. Mom? Are you okay?"

I started to point again and re-state my explanation, when my thought halted and my hand slowly reached up to my ear. 

The...... sunglasses.

<facepalm>

We all belly-laughed as I lowered my sunglasses to see the brightest, clear blue sky -- not a single cloud in sight. Sure enough, the sunglasses were so effective (like I said...they're my favorites!) that they made the color of the whole sky look vastly different.

It's so good for teenage girls to know their mom isn't perfect. You're welcome, ladies. Doh!

So that was the embarrassing moment. Well...that one, plus every time since when they say sarcastically, "Oh no, Ma! I hope it doesn't storm!!" Or "Ohhhh boy. That looks like a BIG one!"

Stinkin kids.

The lessons I learned from this, though (and the reason why I'm reliving the humiliation in the first place), are these.

Lesson 1.
What we see can look vastly different from what those around us see, depending on the lenses we're looking through. We can debate and explain until we're blue (pun intended) in the face, but we will never convince the other person to see what we're seeing if they're not looking through the same lenses we are. And they can think we're completely off of our rocker, when really it's just the effect of the lenses we're both wearing.

Lesson 2.
The sunglasses I was wearing did a great job of protecting my eyes from the sun's rays...but they also made a perfectly clear blue sky give me an unnecessary sense of foreboding. This teaches me that it's really important for me to check my own lenses -- especially when things seem extra dark. Are things actually as awful as they appear? The answer very well might be "yes," but it's great practice to consider alternative possibilities (as crazy as they may seem) and double-check our own eye covers. Using our life experiences to spot danger is very useful, but there's a difference between real and perceived danger.

We're living in a moment when we're being handed storm-colored glasses from many sources (and this goes for the full spectrum of ideologies). The "storms" are different for all of us, but accepting and wearing these glasses puts us at risk of adopting a couple of unhelpful and potentially dangerous beliefs: 1) There are BAD storms coming, and 2) The people who disagree are irresponsible, clueless, and out of their minds. 

I'm all for being realistic and responsible. As long as we're actually being realistic and responsible.