Perspective

Something that we gain over time and through experience.

Perspective has many definitions:
-the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance 
-a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something
-the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed
-a particular way of viewing things that depends on one’s experience and personality
-a point of view

I understand perspective as being the way we view things, our lives, our world and the way we understand what is happening around us. I like to think of perspective in relation to viewing nature - depending on where we stand,  our view of a given scene will change. The time of day, the lighting, the season, etc. all come into play as we take in a scenic view and can all change our perspective of what we are seeing.

Several things have spurred my thinking about this.

First, I've read Stephanie Nilson's blog, the NieNie Dialogues, for several years, beginning after the plane crash that changed her life forever. Recently, she wrote a wonderful post about how she could see now, from her current perspective, how she and her family were prepared for what was to come. I appreciated knowing that with time, experience, and faith she was able to look back on her difficult experience and see how things were put into place and worked out for good for her family.

Then, last week I attended a meeting with our stake presidency, and got to see a presentation our stake president put together about the heavens. It was a mix of pictures, facts, scriptures, and quotes regarding the infinite number of Heavenly Father's creations.

While watching it, I felt a new sense of perspective as I literally saw that there is so much more than my world and my experiences in the vastness of space. There really are worlds without number, and I found great comfort in knowing that my problems are small on such a grand scale. I am grateful for the perspective also to see that there was so much at play before I entered this mortal estate, and that there will be so much after I leave it. Seeing the heavens on such a grand scale helped my seemingly grand problems feel smaller.

Finally, we recently moved our bedroom furniture around and in the process I opened up a missionary binder my mom put together. I lived and served for 18 months as a full time missionary in Venezuela and had many learning and growing experiences on my mission. In my binder, I found a letter written by my dad in reply to what must have been an earnest letter on my part asking why missionary work was so hard and why I was so imperfect at it. I remember his letter being particularly important and instructive to me as a missionary, and as I reread it last night I was again encouraged by his counsel.

The letter stated, "It seems appropriate that I get to your concerns expressed in your last letter. I think any advice from me is best expressed in the context of perspective and proportion, which are easy things to say, but hard things to apply in the context of living life." After giving some wonderful advice, he wrote, "Perhaps most importantly, Jord, know that your life is acceptable to the Lord. Your offering of your missionary service is pleasing to Him. He will continue to direct your path, as He has to now, and you will feel more joy and satisfaction in serving Him and being an integral part of His plan in bringing the good news of the gospel to His children in Venezuela."

Today, eleven years after my missionary experience I can say that things did work out, the Lord directed me, and as I lost myself in service my doubts were replaced by love for the people and gratitude to my Father in Heaven for allowing me to have such a wonderful mission experience.

In summary, I am learning that time and experience will allow me to look back on this experience and recognize how I grew, changed, loved, and came closer to my Savior. I don't, I can't have that perspective right now as we continue to wage the cancer war. We are living month to month, problem to problem, and just trying to feel it out, trust in God, and hold to our faith as we place one foot in front of the other. But I find great peace and comfort in knowing that perspective will come. That months or years later we will have greater understanding of this experience and be able to see how His plan was worked out for good in our lives.