Changing Your Perspective

My guest blogger this week is my dear friend, Connie McDonald. She is an inspirational author, and creativity encourager who is passionate about living live with joy, color and fun. You can learn more about her, her books, and the classes she offers at www.paxsonhouse.com

As long as you look at something the same way, you will get the same feeling or results. As soon as you try on a different way of looking at something, the sooner you will experience different feelings, responses, and more freedom. This sounds self-evident and noble and wise, until you are gripped in the vice of a repetitive, negative emotionally stuck viewpoint. 

Let me give you some practical examples of how this has played out recently in my own life.

The other day I found myself commenting/complaining that the reason I didn’t sew was because of my middle school, home-economics project fiasco.

My reaction was in response to a traumatizing experience during my first attempt to sew a zipper in a dress for a middle school assignment. My immature decision was in response to my experience of encountering my mom’s perfectionist, hovering-over angst, at my slow learning curve. This event, coupled with a few other similar incidents, caused me to give up on sewing.

While there might be an element of truth to the impact of this experience on me, my judgmental statement was uncalled for. 

It took my husband’s simple comment of: “perhaps she just lacked mentoring skills" to invite me to change my perspective. Given that new viewpoint, I chose to immediately change my response, and change my tune, so to speak.

How many other things can we experience breakthrough on when we choose to change our focus, change our mindset, or walk a mile in another’s shoes?

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on everything that has to do with seeing. I’ve enlisted the help of my friend the “Thesauraus” to expand my vision and understanding. Why?

Well, I’ve been frustrated with my inability to visualize, to “see” images in my head or mind’s eye when I close my eyes. In response to my praying about this, and dialoguing with the Lord regarding this subject, I was inspired to use the Thesauraus or dictionary and record all the different meanings of the word,“See”.

Here’s what I found:

See - Perceive, observe, distinguish, notice, witness
See - Understand, realize, perceive, grasp, appreciate
See - Meet, visit, to go to see, call on
See - Find out, investigate, look into, establish, check out
See - IMAGINE, picture, envisage, predict, forsee
See - Consider it, think about it, weigh it up, think it over
See - View, consult, regard, refer to…etc., etc., etc.

This exercise serves to expand my understanding of what a word means. It widens my world, helping me “see” from another angle. New meanings of words gives me a new way to look at something and allow me to change my perspective. 

In my case, I came to a new realization that I have many, many alternative ways of “seeing”, sensing, hearing, imagining...and I am grateful. 

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I hope you've been encouraged by these words from Connie. Let me pray for you as you reflect on her insights about new ways of “seeing” that can help you change your perspective. 

Dear Jesus, thank you that you give us minds and imaginations so we can expand our understanding and come to new realizations. For those reading this post, help them to “as it were” put on different “eyes” which offers a positive perspective and alters their experience. Help them to bring their negative thoughts and feelings to you, so they can be renewed and their memories can be refreshed. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

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