The word perspective has two meanings. Today, I am focusing on one of those meanings: “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.”
This is why some people view the glass as half-full and others view it as half-empty. A grateful heart views the glass as half full. The pessimist views the glass as half-empty. When we view the glass as half-full, we are inclined to believe that things are going in a positive direction. Those who view the glass as half-empty think that things are on the decline.
Two people can be faced with the same exact set of circumstances and view them in totally different ways. The person with a grateful or optimistic heart will find the positive in circumstances. The pessimist believes that all things are pointing to a negative outcome. Since being pessimistic only causes stress and does not change the circumstances, it is much better to be an optimist and experience peace in the circumstances.
A scripture that helps me to be positive when circumstances could be interpreted as negative is Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” When we find scriptures that tell of God’s will for us, it makes it much easier to be positive during times when we do not understand why something is happening. Think of Joseph’s journey to the fulfillment of his dream. Many of the things that happened to him could be considered negative: sold into slavery, Potiphar’s wife lying about him, going to prison. Yet, in the end we see that God used all those things to bring him to his destiny.
Most of us will not experience a journey as replete with seeming misfortunes as Joseph did. We may lose a job, become ill, lose a loved one. Through all these experiences we can remain steadfast in believing that God has an abundant life planned for us. We may sometimes seem to take the “scenic route” 😊 to get there, but God can and does make all things work for our good. Losing that job was a way for him to get us to one with a better income or to get us on our real career path. I have seen this occur in my son’s life. He would start out great in several sales jobs, then he would not be able to sell successfully. These failures caused him to go into cyber security. A career that he loves and pays him very lucratively.
Today, I encourage you, no matter what you are going through, as a child of God, know that He has not forgotten you. He loves you very much and wants you to have an abundant life here and spend eternity with Him, where there will be no more tears but unspeakable joy.