Perspective is Reality

Maybe you've heard the phrase, "perception is reality" which means that the way that each individual perceives life, that is that person's reality and it affects and often clouds one's ability to relate to others.

"Perspective is reality" is my little tweak to this idea. Yesterday, I was having a conversation with a friend and told them of an idea that Becky and I were considering for our family. When I was done, he was looking at me like I had just grown a second head. He then proceeded to insult me and tell me why that idea was a dumb one. Now I was a tad bit offended and wondered why he thought he knew what was best for me and my family and wondered what gave him the right to tell me so. Then it hit me: "perspective is reality"! From his perspective, I'm crazy but from my perspective, everything about my idea makes perfect sense.

As I walked away from this conversation, I realized something about perspective, reality, and grace. Most people do not have the same perspective as me and therefore have different ideas about how to live life. We all have different personalities, backgrounds, motivations, sin issues, etc. and we all think we know what is best. The problem comes when we try to impose our perspective on others and give no grace for people to have their own ideas. This could be anything from how we keep our house to our opinion on adoption to where someone wants to live. It could be anything! We have thoughts and opinions on everything which is fine until we think our way is the only way. The world would be a much nicer place to live if we enjoyed our perspective and opinions but kept them to ourselves. It would be even better if in our attitudes and especially our words, we gave others the same freedom that we desire - the freedom to live according to our own perspective.

Here is a short side note for all of you out there who love to jump to conclusions. I am not talking about the essentials of the Christian faith or sin issues (although grace in both of these is a much better alternative to a judgemental attitude). I am talking about the everyday things of life that make up our personal preferences. You know, all the things that are no big deal, but we make a big deal of them because everybody is not just like us. Anyway I'm just sayin.......

Strive to be a dispenser of grace in all things!