Perspective is Everything...

    Well, maybe not everything, but so many times over the past few years I have been reminded of how important a role perspective plays in our lives. How we see things, or more directly how we choose to see things, has such a huge impact on how we feel, how we respond, and how we behave. Granted, there are times when the blow is so big (and sometimes not so big, but circumstances make it seem like the last straw) that we just roll with it like a ball speeding down hill. We feel incapable of choosing anything. Other times we just don't want to view our circumstance from another perspective. Throughout the adventure of the past few years, we have been blessed to come to know families who are ahead of us on the journey, some who are close behind us, some who sadly will be following shortly, and many who are still in the trenches fighting the battle. Perhaps it is they who have me thinking about perspective the most. You see, on more than one occasion, I have been envious of those still fighting. Not of their situation, and certainly not of their child's suffering, but envious that they are still there, able to fight. When we began our journey, proceeded on through the horrible treatment, I thought those were the most awful, difficult, stressful times imaginable. But time and experience have given me a new perspective. The times I thought were so incredibly terrible...they were, but looking back on them from where I am now, I have a different view. All of those things that used to stress me out, that I thought were the end of the world....compared to where I am now, I'd take a redo in a heartbeat. Never for Braeden's sake, of course. It's purely selfish. But my thoughts on those "really hard days" sure have changed.

    Another item on the list--"Why?" It's a question I've heard so many, many times since we began our journey. From parents, from kids, from hurting family members..."Why me?" "Why my baby?" "What did I do wrong?" I think it's just part of our make-up to want to know why, and want to know if we did something to deserve this happening. Again, perspective. One night I read this quote by my friend Mimi, a fellow cancer mom who just marked two years of missing her precious boy. She wrote, "All this time time I've been wondering what I had done wrong. But, what did I do right to deserve to be the mother of an angel who touched so many???" Bless your heart, Mimi....it is so easy for us to look at the negative, see only what we've lost, instead of choosing to see the positive, the blessing, and marvel at the wonder of our kids and what they brought to this life. Never in this life will I understand, never accept, but always will I choose to be amazed at my sweet boy and the amazing gift he was for his short life here, and to our family and so many others, forever. I am thankful always to you for that piece of perspective.

    Perhaps the biggest change I have noticed in our entire family is a not-so-subtle shift to an eternal perspective. I've seen it emerging in the kids, seen is taking shape in us. It's a new awareness of the value of things--whether that value is only for the here and now, or in the scope of eternity. I've gotta tell ya, we have a new appreciation for the long range. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, Solomon writes that God has "made everything beautiful in its time" and that He has "set eternity in the hearts of men." God's timetable is so very different from ours. So much of what people value is only in the moment, and will mean so little in the ever-after. Sometimes it takes a big event to force us to see things differently. Perspective may not be everything, but it's a lot. Lord, help me to choose to see life from Your eternal perspective, to see what really matters, not just what's here for a moment...