This entry from Thirty Days of Devotion is called “Using Other Glasses.” I’m a rose-colored-glasses type of gal. I stop just short of sticking my head in a hole, but I prefer to focus on positives as much as possible and will play Pollyanna’s “Glad Game” on a whim.
But sometimes, positives simply can’t be found using a normal perspective. Makes me think of the end of the story of Pollyanna. She couldn’t see all of the harvest from her good work because she was too focused on the bad that had happened.
I see it in my own life. My circumstances at this moment are almost identical to the way they were at this time last year. Yet I’m no where near as stressed this time as I was in 2014. What’s changed? My attitude.
I’m ashamed that much of what I went through last year felt like burdens instead of joy. I spent quite a lot of the summer praying about my lousy eyesight that’s way too trained on my own interests. This year, I find I’m looking forward to each day and relishing the tasks that last year made me feel so constrained.
Nehemiah had something of the same situation. It took him gaining a bigger perspective to appreciate what God was doing then. It is the same for us, today.
We can’t hope to understand the workings of an infinite God with our limited eyesight. (Tweet This!)
When we’re busy looking at our own interests or issues, we miss the big picture. Seeing the full periphery requires using spiritual vision and that requires a focus on things of the Lord, rather than things of the world.
Your Turn: Have you noticed something wasn’t what you expected when you looked at it through the Lord’s perspective?
It’s not too late to join this challenge of spending time daily with the Lord. We’re walking through Thirty Days of Devotion available at Amazon. I hope you’ll read along with us and jump in on the conversation!
Marji Laine 
2015/September at 10:14 am
I would have never imagined that I would be ill. Yet during these last 8 years (wow, that long already), my husband and I grew closer. My daughters and son have such a new perspective on life and its meaning. And I have come to a dependency on God of such a way most don’t ever get to until the end. I have been close to death many times not knowing if the medication was going to work. I am grateful for sick days. I am so so grateful for well days. I enjoy the little things much more. My attitude at first for the illness was bitterness and anger, but know I have come to acceptance and seeing that the Lord just has a different plan than I anticipated. It was hard to accept that I will always be ill, unless the Lord decides to send a miracle, but now that I have accepted that fact, my attitude is so much better. I am reminded often of the verse from Job, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?”
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2015/September at 10:16 am
Perfect verse for this section and an excellent one to live by!
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2015/September at 7:54 am
I was talking to some friends on a Christian chronic illness support group. I was so sad and discouraged that our oldest son, who is feeling God’s call to be a pastor, has spent from age 12 to age 17 being basically homeless off and on (because of the severity of my Toxic Injury), having to help us when we move & camp, and dealing with the day-to-day struggles of my TI. It was NOT my dream for our children’s growing up years!!!!! But then, some people in the group wrote something like, “But just imagine what kind of compassionate pastor he will be! He will understand chronic illness and issues that most other pastors won’t! Plus, when God allowed this, He had your children in mind, too. He will work it for good in their lives, too.” Looking at it through the Lord’s perspective made all the difference in the world.
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2015/September at 10:09 am
That’s exactly what I was thinking, Christa. God has given them an experience that they will be able to use as adults, reaching forgotten people and seeing pain where others don’t.
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