"It's All About Perspective"

As a teacher, I am blessed to receive a variety of gifts from my students throughout the school year. Some gifts may be seen as “better” than others, but they all come from the heart. Last school year, one of my little boys brought me a cardboard box with hearts drawn on it. You could tell that this box had been used for something else prior, but I proceeded to open it and saw a variety inside. He had placed the following things in it: one of his stuffed animals, a small watering can figurine, a pencil missing its eraser, a squishy animal, a small turtle figurine missing two legs, a small bridge figurine, a blue beaded necklace, and a small felt heart. To some, this gift may have been seen as useless. Maybe they would’ve even thrown it away. However, it served as a reminder to me of perspective. What others would’ve seen as trash left me crying tears of joy over the gift I had just received. You see, perspective has a huge impact on the way we are viewing the aspects of life.

This got me thinking . . . We all face different things as we progress through life, but we all have the same two choices: a Godly perspective or a worldly perspective. Many times, we view situations as just another thing we must do or overcome. We don’t stop and think of the ways God is benefiting us, or how we can use our situation to benefit God.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

In this verse, the Lord tells us that if we search for Him with all our heart, He will hearken unto us. What we may see as pointless, the Lord may be trying to use to open our eyes and change our perspective. We can know the heart of God if we ask Him. He promises in His word that He will show us the will He has for us. In situations where we feel down and out, God may be trying to use it to bring us closer to Him.

A worldly perspective may cause you to see your situation as something that is useless or unworthy; a Godly perspective may show you your situation as an opportunity to bring glory to God for His loving heart towards us. Just as the gift I received last school year would’ve been thrown to the side by some, the true heart behind the gift is what mattered. May we not see our situations as useless, but may we change our perspective to see the heart of God behind each day of our lives.