Keeping Perspective

We've all had someone tell us, "It could be worse." When we're feeling down and out, that's the last thing that we want to hear. We want our pain to be important enough to acknowledge. We want time to sit and stew and vent, or whatever else we need. The sad truth is, most of the time--it could be worse.

This past weekend, a writing friend of mine had to give her daughter into God's hands. Her daughter is only 9 months old and she had a heart transplant Saturday night. Praise the Lord that she is doing fine. You can check out her journey at One Woman's Dream.

I have another friend whose daughter has been really ill for the past 2-3 weeks. She's only three. The doctor's don't know what's wrong, and my friend has to watch her daughter be poked and prodded, knowing there isn't anything she can do for her.

I have yet another friend who, like me, just moved to Hawaii. Only, she has a 4-yr-old daughter and is pregnant. Her husband deployed overseas this weekend.

These are just a few people I can look out on and know that, yeah, my life could be so much worse.

We live narrrow-viewed lives. Our perspective is skewed because we focus on ourselves. Little things, like running late or a child making a mess, can essentially ruin our mood, or even our day. We let petty things get under our skin and take away our peace.

Life is so much more than the everyday nuances. We need to remember to thank God for each little blessing, big or small. And we need to remember to thank Him for the bad as well because, well, it could be worse. We could not have Him at all.