Perspective

Feeling better today, I think the strep has just about run it's course.  I stayed home to rest while my husband took the children to church.  I honestly can't remember the last time that I was alone in the house for more than an hour.  It was the best break ever!  I sipped on my coffee and read my Bible,  marinated chicken for lunch, made a black bean salsa, vacuumed, turned on some classical music and just enjoyed getting the house ready for a nice Sunday lunch. 

Somewhere in between sips of coffee, I turned on the TV and caught just a little bit of The Texas Traveler.  They were interviewing a young teenage girl who had lost nearly all of her vision.  She wasn't born this way, but her vision slowly evolved to accommodate not much more than a blur at the end of a straw sized tunnel.  The interview took place at the young ladies school, where she had special tools to help her read and study.  She explained to the interviewer that her mother taught her from early on that, there were no excuses in this life.  "Everyone has something that challenges them, something that they carry with them and struggle with, and this just happens to be yours,"  her mother explained.  The interview proceeded to show how this young lady is on the track team, excels in pole vaulting and long distance jumping, along with a lengthy list of sports, dance, and gymnastics classes.  Her track team has a part in supporting her.  They wear bells on their shoes so that she can hear where they are at.  Amazingly she excels at basketball.  She attributes her success to counting the steps on the basketball court and listening to the sounds of the ball against the gym floor.  This young woman wasn't able to participate in these sports EXACTLY in the same way that the other kids did, she adapted.  She took what she had, found a solution, and moved ahead to participate in the best way that she could, giving it her 100%.  Her parents said that they have never told her once that she couldn't do something, only that she needed to figure out how she could.  What an inspiration!  Maybe we aren't all called to be athletes, such as this young lady, but I do feel that we are called to do the best that we can with what we are given.  Maybe my 100% on any given day may look different than yours, and vice versa, but that is ok! 

When my children were little I spent a lot of time taking photos.  I even took a black and white photography class and learned darkroom techniques, eventually developing my own photographs.  This is a hobby that I have long since forgotten.  It never ceases to amaze me how we are naturally drawn to focus dead straight ahead of us, but oh how different and beautiful the view can be when observed from other angles.  Such is life, I believe.  The young lady in the news story knew the value of seeing beyond her tunnel vision.  Outward, not inward, up, not down....it's all perspective.

Today I found myself with a little spare time while waiting on my family to return home.  I grabbed my handy little camera and snapped some photos.  Seeing images through the lens, and through a different perspective is refreshing to me!

Thought I'd share!

Colossians 3:12-14  Therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Blessings! 

Alicia