It’s All About Perspective

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

It was a blistering cold spring day. I pulled my jacket tight around me as I quickly ran to the car to avoid the swirling wind. “Brrrr!” I said to myself as I turned up the heat and waited for the vehicle to warm.

As I made my way to a local antique store to buy a birthday present for my daughter’s friend, small flakes of snow began to fall.

“Great. Really, Minnesota? It’s April already,” I grumbled under my breath as I pulled into the parking lot.

I spent the next twenty minutes perusing all of the lovely antiques, sending my daughter pictures of things her friend might like before settling on an old bottle filled with beautiful dried flowers.

When I meandered up to the checkout, an older gentleman greeted me there. As we made small talk and I paid my bill, he teasingly said, “Enjoy the beautiful weather!”

“Right?” I said. “This is just crazy. I’m tired of snow.”

“You know,” he said, handing me my bag, “that’s true, but if this were January, we’d be celebrating that the temperature was above thirty degrees.”

I paused. “You’re right. It’s all about perspective,” I said, as I smiled and left the store. All the way home I thought about our interaction and how perspective changes everything. What had me grumbling in April would have left me overjoyed in January, when anything above zero degrees feels like a reprieve in Minnesota.

And isn’t that true of so much in life? Our perspective on our circumstances, relationships, and life in general matters. If we go about our days complaining, thinking about everything that is negative or wrong, that will sour our mood. But the opposite is true as well: if we can find a way to be thankful for even something small in any circumstance, we’ll go through our days grateful for what we do have.

Kendra

Today’s Act of Gratitude

Is there an area of your life you’ve been complaining about recently? How could a change in perspective help you find even the smallest thing to be grateful for in this season?