One of the online dictionary’s definition of “perspective” is the way in which objects appear to the eye; a mental view or outlook.
Last week I went to revival at a church that I attended regularly during my teenage years. Any time one returns to a place of their past, memories abound for sure. I remember the church family I was a part of there, fun times had, strong spiritual services, and many other things—some significant, some not so much. This particular church was a church filled with paternal relatives…my granny’s church and many of her own family. In fact most of my paternal family sleep in that cemetery. As my daddy said, the happiest of times and the saddest of times had occurred in that building.
I can remember in the past when I would enter that church, it would seem such a long way to get to the front….the building seemed soooo big. When I arrived on Sunday night for service and opened the door, I immediately noted that little had changed through the years except for one thing. It seemed such a short distance to the front. The pews and the aisle seemed shorter; however, they were the same ones.
That got me to thinking, too, about our front yard we had when I was a child. That yard seemed so very big, had oak trees my daddy had planted. The front porch of that house seemed large and it seemed such a long distance from that front porch to the road, giving a little girl much place to run and play, pretend and dream. Now, when I pass by that house, it never ceases to amaze me how small that yard seems. Yes, it’s the same yard with the same porch on the house, but that porch seems so small.
I decided that as one got older, the perspective changes….the way one looks at things and the way one thinks of things. As one reaches “maturity”, I think the past holds so much “experience” that it makes one hopefully wiser and does change their perspective somewhat. Face it, I’m realistic now when I look in the mirror. Gone are the dreams of one day being slender. I know that’s a ridiculous thought as long as I stay healthy. I was slender in 12th grade and since then slender has become an unfamiliar word when used with my weight and form. And now, I put it in perspective and it’s okay. That’s not to say I’d not like to weigh a bit less, I would for sure, but I know that for that to happen, I have to make a serious effort to count the calories and pay attention to what goes into my open mouth. I’m working on it. My counting is not so easy.
When I disagree with someone, I should always step back and look at the problem from that person's perspective. Maybe that person is right or maybe that person is wrong but either way, I might be more understanding. And if that person is wrong, I'll hope he would take a look from my perspective, too, just in case I would be right. Perspective.
In my life at this moment, I’d much rather be sitting on my porch watching birds than in a movie theater watching a movie. Perspective.
When there’s a glass of water, I don’t look at it as half full or half empty. I see a glass of water to quench my thirst. Granted, that old saying giving an example of optimism and pessimism will never grow old, but I have learned that life is life and life is going to bring you some things you don’t want. And one can’t do a thing about some of those things except endure. Perspective. And when life dishes out some really good things, just rejoice and be glad.
Truly, a lot of times I am so busy looking at the outside of someone that I often miss what’s down on the inside and that’s the most important “side” of all. Character and inner strength are what’s important. Even though the online dictionary’s definition of perspective is “the way objects appear to the eye”, maybe every now and then I should look at life from God’s eyes. God's viewpoint. God's perspective.
1 Samuel 16:7 says, “….the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
Maybe my thoughts don’t make much sense from one perspective but maybe they will from another. Think on it. Perspective.
