- p e r s p e c t i v e -

i must say . .

 i keep learning and understanding

more 

&

more

&

more

&

more

about 

.

.

. 

- p e r s p e c t i v e -

and how very much the lens through which we, and others, 

see . . .

 life

situations

 and other people 

is like. the most crucial thing ever.

:)

and further exploring . .

that actually how we 

p e r c e i v e

life

situations

and other people

is more important than:

what is actually going on in our lives.

what really happened.

and the words he/she specifically spoke.

what matters more is:

how we interpreted these things,

how they made us feel,

and who we are as a result of them.

william shakespeare once said, 

"there is nothing either good or bad, but

thinking

makes it so" 

a rich man and a poor man could both be given the same meal of steak and potatoes for dinner.

however,

each individual man's opinion of

the same steak and potatoes,

are most likely going to be wildly different from each other,

given their different

- p e r s p e c t i v e s -

the poor man may have thought to himself,

"my this steak is incredible!"

simply for the fact that it was something warm to eat.

whereas . . . 

the rich man may have thought to himself,

"i find this steak only tolerable to my tastebuds",

given it wasn't seasoned to his optimal liking.

different perspectives.

different realities.

same steak.

"there is nothing either good or bad, but

thinking

makes it so."

what comes to mind when you hear the word,

"crisis" 

?

i'm willing to guess that for a vast majority of us,

"crisis" solicits feelings of

panic

fear

negativity

anxiety

etc.

however i think with more understanding,

we can cultivate better feelings toward a word that gets such a bad rap.

in chinese, "crisis" is comprised of two distinct characters:

the first meaning danger,

the second meaning opportunity.

thus we can further reflect and learn that . . .

 perhaps maybe there's a reason behind the "awful" things that happen to us. 

maybe we are meant to do more than just endure.

maybe every crisis we encounter is to give us an

o p p o r t u n i t y to grow

if

we can view this with the right

- p e r s p e c t i v e - 

i just returned from serving a full-time mission in las vegas for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a few months ago.

it was there that i found a talk that completely changed my outlook on the mission,

and continues to influence my growing

- p e r s p e c t i v e -

in my life.

it is:

the fourth missionary by lawrence e. corbridge

i would like to share an excerpt from his talk that i feel goes well with our subject at hand:

"every challenge you face, 

every hard thing you confront, 

every bad thing that happens to you, 

every unfairness, 

every conflict,

 every sadness,

 tragedy,

 every disappointment and heartache, 

every temptation and every opposition 

happens for one purpose only:

 to give you 

o p p o r t u n i t y

 to respond

 by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus.

 as you do so,

 you are changed to become more like Him."

we are all in the driver's seat of our own lives.

while we may not have any control over

what cards we're dealt to begin with

 or

how people treat us,

we CAN choose to view all of these things in life as 

o p p o r t u n i t i e s

to grow and become more like our savior.

and.

if we can't currently see things from this view,

we can always ask for help to

change.

our.

- p e r s p e c t i v e -

xoxo

kelsiefay