Perspectacles

Perspectacles.  I found that word this week, and I wished I'd been creative enough to have made it up for myself. Instead, another mother coined it, wrote it in her blog (a great read, by the way - you can find it here), and I decided to immediately adopt it. I've been mulling it over for days... When debriefing or mentoring others, I frequently talk about perspective. How you and I see things is often colored by our experiences. We look at the world through the eye glasses, or magnifying glass, of our pain, our past, or the people in our life (and any combination of the three). Perspective is just perspective, until the facts are in, the truth is told, and everything is laid bare. Until then, we have to work hard to keep our "perspectacles" on and simply see things for what they are. An example I've often used looks like this:

What do you see? I've never taken an official survey, but I've asked hundreds of people. Here are the approximate, by my estimation, of what others have said:
80% see a tree trunk with a hole in it
15% see a person with their hands raised in praise
The other 5% have seen everything from a fallopian tube with an egg coming through it, to a martini glass with an olive in it, and a tree with a hole that holds a chipmunk's nest with baby chipmunks...
No matter what your "story," here's the truth - this is just a circle and two curved lines. Those are the facts, until we are given more of the details (period).

We all need just the facts, a way to look at life, when the wheel is spinning off the axis of our lives. So, we all need to put on our newly acquired "perspectacles" (you can design them any way you want them to look, and I'd love to hear you describe yours to me), and rest on some unchanging truths. Here are some I turn to often:

God loves me and he rejoices over me. (Probably the greatest truth in the entire Bible!)

For God so loved (Peg), that He gave His only begotten Son... (John 3:16)

The Lord your God is in your midst, He is a victorious warrior.  He will rejoice over you with joy, He will renew you in His love; He will dance over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

God has a plan for my life.

'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).'

That plan is to conform me more and more to the image of His Son!

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29)

He will do whatever it takes to see that happen, so everything that occurs in my life is for my good and His Glory!

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Because of these facts, I will give thanks in EVERYTHING, no matter how I feel (feelings are instructors meant to teach us what is going on inside, not dictators to rule our lives).

...in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

So, join me in grabbing your "perspectacles,"and start looking at life through a new lens, responding with gratitude and joy. God's got your life in his very capable and loving hands!