Perspective

Perspective:   

the state of one's ideas, 

the facts known to one, etc.

Recently, a friend and I were discussing how our perspectives shape our lives and the decisions we make.  He said ‘It’s amazing how changing our perspective changes our perspective’.

I know, on the surface it’s like ‘uh, duh’.  But stop and actually think about it.  Sometimes the slightest shift in the facts we know can change how we feel about a person, event or subject.  One of the devotions I wrote for the online website dealt with Exodus 20:12a; Honor thy father and thy mother…  Not always easy for me.  I was one of those quiet ones that everyone says you need to watch out for.  I often tell people that had it not been for God, I would have been dead, in prison or a mercenary.  People who knew me then and know me now, laugh.  I make light of it but I know it’s true.

Even after I got saved, honoring Dad was difficult.  Don’t think I didn’t love my dad.  I did.  One of the smartest men I have ever known; Jack of all Trades, master of a few.  If something was wrong with the plumbing or gas, I would have to go under the house to fix it (I was the only one that fit).  My dad had never been under that house; never.  He would tell me exactly what and where the problem was and what I would need to take with me to fix it.  He was never wrong; never.

Dad was just a kid when he became a Marine during WWII.  I don’t remember him talking about it until I was in my twenty’s.  Even then, it was just a sentence here or there.  One time we were watching a WWII movie about the fighting in the islands.  They were showing the flame throwers working the caves and Dad simply said, ‘You cannot imagine the smell of burning flesh’.  It wasn’t just a movie to him.  My dad was there.  I found out later that after the war he was stationed in occupied Japan.  He saw the destruction left in the wake of the atom bomb first hand.  Dealt with the people who were living it out.

He was just a kid.

Did learning these things change my perspective?  Oh, yeah.  It gave me a better understanding of the events that shaped my dad’s life.  Shaped his world view and the decisions he made.  Were they all good decisions?  No.  But, how many of us can say the same thing about ourselves?

It is amazing how changing our perspective changes our perspective.