I was a junior in high school when a teacher showed us a drawing that was clearly of a young woman looking over her shoulder.
“Look at it again” my teacher prompted. “Can you see the old woman?”
For the life of me I could not see that image from another perspective.
Situations in our lives can be the same.
It ranges from simple First World problems … my groceries weren’t ready to be picked up on time…
to the deepest of griefs … we sat by the bedside begging God to let her live.
Sometimes it seems like there is only one way to see things, but when we look again, when we walk around a situation and examine it from all angles, we might find new vision.
Maybe the delayed grocery pickup made you late for something, but maybe it meant you had uninterrupted time to talk with your kids.
Maybe sitting by the bedside made room for a conversation you’d longed for, but never thought you’d have.
Kindness works the same way. When we look at the world through the lens of kindness, we are saying, “This is what I think is going on, but I’m going to stop before I send a nasty look or say something I’ll regret and instead walk around the situation to see it from another angle.”
We might find the server got our order wrong because she is weary.
Or the sister-in-law is short with us because she is dealing with her own insecurities.
Or the woman is gabbing too loudly on her cellphone because she’s talking to someone who struggles to hear.
If you have a hard time seeing things from a new perspective, maybe you could do what I did in high school. Ask for help.
I still ask for help all the time. Only now instead of raising my hand in a classroom, I whisper it in my heart.
God, please help me see this situation the way you do. Give me a new perspective.
God is a great teacher. And He’s always ready to help someone who is ready to learn.