Perspective

I'm thankful for a lot of things... my family, my great God, my home, my country, the food in my pantry.  Despite all of this I was thinking that, with all honestly, there are more things that I am not thankful for. 1 Thessalonians 5:18a (NASB) instructs us, "In everything give thanks."

Really? In laundry, in runny noses, in potty training, in mud on a clean floor, in fights with my husband, in all the really horrible things?  I find that a tall order! 

 A comedian, Louis C.K., put it very well on a late night show,

“Everything is amazing and nobody is happy… We use to have to make sparks with a rotary phone to call someone… Now we live in an amazing world and it is wasted on one of the most spoiled generations.  If they have to wait on their cell phones for one second they are griping and complaining… give it a second! It is going up to outerspace! Its working at the speed of light!” (paraphrased)

Do we see just how amazing everything is around us… or are we just looking at the bad?  

I know what I am most drawn toward.

It is funny how much thankfulness in tied to our perspective in life.  We view our circumstances through a tunnel that focuses narrowly on the problems or frustrations in our life.  However, God sees the whole, as if viewing life from a grand stand. When we change our vantage point to a godly one, we are able to see the things around the problems and to see the good and the bad. 

Being a mother for instance, has a lot of down sides... you know, the constant whining, endless discipline and correction and the poop! It can make the most ardent person very weary, especially when you don't have a God-centered perspective.  Here is another look at mothering...

Author J.R. Miller from 1879 said, “O mothers of young children, I bow before you in reverence. Your work is most holy.  You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls.” 

Your work is most holy! Fashioning the destinies of immortal souls...

I guess that makes whining and poop more tolerable... and spins a whole new light on discipline and training! Our children are precious... every bit, crafted by the hands of God!

But then, their is homemaking, housework and the endless futility of the home.  Not a day goes by that I don't work hard, very hard all day to have to get up and do the same exact thing all over again! It is enough to make me want to shake my fist. So, let's see if there is another way to look at that...

A lawyer turned homemaker said, “Yet housekeeping actually offers more opportunities for savoring achievement than almost any other work I can think of.”

Hum, really. That is probably true... also, one's work truly benefits the worker... and there are many opportunities to enjoy creativity in the home... but still, it is very futile...

Martin Luther also said, “ What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did them up in heaven for our Lord. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God.” 

Sacred!  Really? I think it might be. 

Perhaps I could imagine washing the floors of heaven when I mop mine!  

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Perspective is everything.  It can turn a rotten snot nosed child into an immortal soul in need of molding. It can turn a dirty hovel into the living abode of the Almighty. Or a weary, bitter, bedraggled woman into a delightful servant of God. 

How we view what we do, who we are in the eyes of God are freeing and empassioning.  It adds security and significance where there is none.