Earlier today, I ran into one of our pastors and friend (I’ll call him John for this post) and we were chatting about how we were doing and the thought of perspective really stuck to me and I couldn’t shake it off. I kept repeating the conversation in my head long after we had both moved on.
John and his wife recently adopted several more children from overseas. They are one large family and would give the reality show families a run for their money. I don’t know how they do it and their love and capacity for children always amazes me. It is nothing short of admirable and inspirational.
We don’t get to see them very often anymore, but it’s always a pleasure when we do. I always ask how they are doing because I genuinely want to know how they are actually doing and John always gives a straight up answer. It is much appreciated.
As a parent, I know that feeling of being in survival mode, but their lives are that survival mode times a hundred. So when they asked me how we were doing, I did my best to tell them the biggest thing that we’re struggling with right now in a brief few sentences. It’s never a good idea to do that and I’m not sure why I even did that. My answers always come out all wrong and convoluted. I really need to work on my bad habit of inarticulate blubbering vocalized out loud!
Anyway, after my terrible answer, the comment that really struck me was “That doesn’t seem so pressing.”
*SILENCE*
Yes, it wasn’t really anything pressing. My friend was right on. I ended up offering something that seemed more pressing, but my former answer was already out there – floating.
It made me realize that we sometimes need to take a step back and see our situations and lives in a wider lens. Sometimes we need a bigger perspective and those tough and seemingly impossible situations won’t be so bad.
I’m not trying to trivialize anyone’s problems or my own, but it was just good to that reminder about having a bit of perspective. It made our current struggle much more manageable and I was definitely able to feel more relaxed about it.
Here’s to Mondays and having perspective!