Recently, I had an interesting experience. It was about a dress sold in a foreign country. What was amazing is that people had different opinions about the color of the dress.
There was an online debate on whether the stripes of the dress were white and gold or blue and black. When I looked at the dress on the screen, I wondered why there was even a debate about that, because the dress looked white and gold to me right away.
I showed it to my husband. I had no doubt that he would see it as white and gold as I did, but his answer was different.
“It’s blue and black.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I double-checked it, but it still looked white and gold to me. I thought something was wrong with my husband’s eyes, and my husband thought that something was wrong with my eyes.
‘My eyes are abnormal?’
I couldn’t believe we saw the same dress in different colors, so I made some research about it. What was the true color of the dress?
The answer was blue and black. It explained that the color sense and the degree of sensitivity of retina vary, depending on people, so people can see colors differently. I was stunned that it is not only animals but even humans see colors differently.
Only 25% of people recognized the color of the dress correctly. The other 75% of people saw different colors in that dress. I was very confident that the colors I saw were true. Although I looked at the dress again after I had found out that the colors I saw were not the true colors of the dress, the information imprinted in my head did not easily change.
Through this interesting experience, I realized that there are few things in this world that we can be absolutely confident about. I also realized that it is hard to change our thoughts even if we learn what is true.
As we have more experiences and knowledge, our confidence becomes stronger. Once we believe that our thoughts are absolutely true, it is hard to accept a different opinion.
People can feel and think differently even in the same situation. That’s why what is more important than anything else when we have different opinions from each other is to set aside our opinions for a second and to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes.
I look back upon myself to see how much I’ve embraced and understood all the differences of the heavenly family members, and whether or not I hurt their feelings by insisting on my own opinion for nothing serious.
Now I will get rid of my fixed idea insisting I’m right, and treat brothers and sisters well, always keeping in mind that other people can think differently from me. I will humble myself and serve others more so that the God-given precious relationship with them will not get hurt.