An eternal perspective transforms our narrow, earth-bound perspective. It elevates our thinking, to remember, “my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Photo Credit: Free photo: Sunset, Mountains, Trees, Landscape – Free Image on …
Thanksgiving comes first, putting everything into perspective if only we still our souls to listen and learn the secret.
Photo Credit: Fall Cornucopia — Rosslyn (VA) November 2012 | Image by Ron… | Flickr
Just as there’s beauty and purpose in every season, there’s beauty and purpose for everything that comes to our lives, good or bad.
Source: Weathering the Whethers of Life
Photo Credit: The Four Seasons Free Stock Photo – Public Domain Picture
I try not to complain about the weather. Really, I do. But I must admit that where I live, it’s hard to keep a positive outlook. The other day, while walking to work, I had that fleeting thought, “Maybe we should just move somewhere warm and sunny.” I’m sure that’s not a rare thought among those who live in a place where spring temperatures can plummet below zero and above 100 degrees in a matter of hours.
The seasons supposedly turned from winter to spring back in March. Since then, it’s felt like deep midwinter on most days, and the dog days of summer on others. Through it, the refrain of an old poem I once learned comes to mind, “Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not, we’ll weather the weather whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.”
As much as the weather out here tends to frustrate even the most grateful of souls, I know deep down that I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I love being where I can watch winter melt into spring, spring burst into summer, summer drift into fall, and fall transform into winter. We Midwesterners get to enjoy the best (and worst!) of every season, and we’re stronger for it.
Life in the land of unchanging seasons would be boring, and I imagine we’d start taking the sun for granted. Not so, here. Never a dull moment in the realm of weather, and we most definitely appreciate our sunny days.
It’s much the same in life. Circumstances pass through our lives like the seasons, breathing hot or cold, rainy or windy, icy or breezy. We see life at its best, and life at its worst, and we’re stronger for it. Hard times till the soils of our hearts, birthing gratitude.
Much as I don’t like change or hardship, I’ve learned to see the beauty in it. Just as there’s beauty and purpose in every season, there’s beauty and purpose for everything that comes to our lives, good or bad. A change in perspective helps us to see through the trying times to the blessings that will come as a result. To embrace the different seasons of life is to cultivate joy.
Photo Credit: Through the Seasons-Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer | Flickr – Photo …
The other morning my son woke me up by holding my face in his chubby little hands and whispering in my ear, “Mommy, you’re beeeeyoutiful. You’re my most beeeeyoutiful Mommy.” I was ready to give him the world if he so desired, when he went on to say, “Your hair is messy. It needs a brush. And so do your teeth.” Three-year olds. They can be heavenly sweet and brutally honest, and it only makes you love them all the more.
As we enjoyed some precious cuddle-time, I vaguely wondered if his latter comments about my messy hair and other maladies negated his initial compliment. And that’s when I realized. Children operate on a whole different standard of beauty.
We grow up in a world saturated with impossibly-perfect super model standards. Photoshopped, of course. The media convinces us we’re less-than-worthy if we don’t measure up to its definition of beauty. We can’t even pass through the check-out lane without a barrage of images staring us down, telling us we’re not enough. And all this right next to the 700-calorie candy bar display.
Yet in the midst of it all, my son sees his haphazard-haired Mommy-without-make-up and says, “you’re beeeeyoutiful.” It’s not that he ignores my imperfections. Instead, he sees me in all my imperfect glory and knows that beyond it all is a heart full of love for him.
Maybe that’s why the Bible says we should all be more like children. Not childish, of course, but childlike. They see from a higher perspective than we who tower over them in stature. I believe they see from God’s perspective…God, who “does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Photo Credit: Tiara | Flickr – Photo Sharing!
This Life & Beyond 
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