“In my own life lately, I’ve noticed how God has been placing silver linings in nearly every trial set before me, providing not only a glimmer of hope but a reason beyond obedience to thank Him for each trial.”

By Teresa Neumann

(Australia)—In my own life lately, I’ve noticed how God has been placing silver linings in nearly every trial set before me, providing not only a glimmer of hope but a reason beyond obedience to thank Him for each trial. In addition, being someone who actually loves the rain (I find it intellectually and spiritually inspiring), I was not surprised to read the results of the following study.

Australian researchers at the University of New South Wales School of Psychology, under the lead of Professor Joe Forgas, are said to have found a “silver lining” to cloudy days, saying that such days improve memory and thus are good for human brains. As reported in The Daily Mail, people who were “feeling grumpy” when the weather was bad scored three times higher than on sunny days when they felt “happy and carefree.” Or, as Pro8News puts it, the researchers found that “people grumbling their way through the grimness of winter have better recall than those enjoying a carefree, sunny day.”

The researchers’ overall conclusion was: “Memory is far more accurate on gloomy days.”

Said Forgas: “Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are more likely to make more snap judgments about people we meet. We are more forgetful and yet we are paradoxically far more likely to be over-confident that our recall is correct. Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.”

Still not convinced? Inclined to continue complaining about the rain?

Consider one of my favorite G. K. Chesterton’s essays, “The Romantic in the Rain.” In edited excerpts he writes: “I cannot comprehend why it is [the British] exhibit a mysterious dislike of rain. The scheme of rain in itself is one of an enormous purification. It scrubs the sky…all the forests are drinking water. Moreover, the forests are apparently enjoying it; the trees rave and reel to and fro like drunken giants…they roar undying thirst and howl the health of the world. If I count it Christian mercy to give a cup of cold water to a sufferer, shall I complain of these multitudinous cups of cold water handed round to all living things? I would be ashamed to grumble at it.”

“This is one of the beauties of rainy weather,” he continues, “that while the amount of original and direct light is commonly lessened, the number of things that reflect light is unquestionably increased. There is less sunshine, but there are more shiny things, such beautiful shiny things as pools and puddles and mackintoshes. It is like moving in a world of mirrors. While [rain] decreases light, yet it doubles it. If it dims the sky, it brightens the earth. We dwell in a double universe. This bright, wet, dazzling confusion of shape and shadow, of reality and reflection, will appeal strongly to anyone with the transcendental instinct about this dreamy and dual life of ours. It will always give a man the strange sense of looking down at the skies.”

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Used by permission www.breakingchristiannews.com  Source: Staff—Pro8News
http://www.pro8news.com/news/technology/42842082.html