Perspective Changes Everything
It’s five weeks until Christmas! I can’t even deal with the thought that the year is nearly over. I feel like it was only last week I took down the Christmas tree and yikes…… I still have so much to accomplish that I had set out to do this year. What does your dreams and goal list look like? Does it have lines across each point signifying check and complete – Dream fulfilled? Or are there sentences filled with hopes and wishes yet to be answered? We can often get to this time of year and feel discouraged with what we haven’t done and what dreams weren’t fulfilled. Now those sentences feel like huge disappointments. Words that were once filled with hope and promise, now stare at us and mock us like it was our fault these dreams didn’t manifest into reality. Perhaps we could have worked harder, eaten less, exercised more. Talked less, studied more …. and the list goes on.
Disappointment comes when our expectations are not met the way we saw it in our heart and on the timeline we had hoped for. For many years, December would come around and I would sit in misery and have a good cry and watch everyone else’s life look like it was being fulfilled. Here I was still waiting on dreams and feeling like a failure. I realize in hindsight that those people also had dreams and goals on their list that were yet to be fulfilled but I was focusing on the wins they received because they seemed to get what I was hoping for. Comparison is a killer and the wait is tough for us all, but what I have come to know, is that God is perfect in His timing and He is faithful to complete what He started. If He said it, it will come to pass. Some things take longer than others and some things came around quicker than anticipated but the greatest lesson I have learned, is that being grateful changes our perspective.
When I begin to feel sad or discouraged for what hasn’t happened, I sit down and begin to write a list of what has happened and most of the time it shows me that there were things I hadn’t even asked for that God gave me as a sweet gift. My perspective shifts from disappointment to gratitude.
I am so grateful for what 2015 has brought me and my family this year. We are healthy, we are happy and we have had the privilege to witness countless lives be changed by the presence of God. Our church has grown rapidly, I finished my manuscript after ten long years of writing, I celebrated another year of life and my friendships went to a deeper level. The setbacks and disappointments also proved to bring growth and maturity.
I am hopeful for the remaining five weeks and choose to be grateful and joyful in all things and with gratitude in my heart and a sense that God is not finished with us yet, helps me see that everyday is a gift and I look forward to making tomorrow count. I pray that you too can sit down, write a list of all the good things that have happened to you and I hope it changes your perspective and help you see that God is good even when you are still waiting on the promise.