Perspective...

Dictionary.com says it's a way of regarding situations, facts, etc. and judging their relative importance.

I am completely entranced with the word. I guess, really, I'm entranced with its meaning to me. EVERYTHING is about perspective! Am I stuck or waiting for an opportunity? Am I bored or do I have free time? Am I old or experienced? (This is rhetorical. I'm experienced, duh!) :o)
Perspective helps me care about a tragic event that happens somewhere when I've been to that place and seen it myself or know someone involved.

The last few days I have spent doing very little compared to usual days. Due to a business trip that Christian took Kyrsten on, (She sent me a text saying, "we watched Mr. Deeds, and ordered Buffalo Wild Wings then went to the pool, then ate cookies, and now watching a gator show"), Addie and I had four days to spend just the two of us which is a first since I took her to Chicago when she was about 10 for a dance competition. That was a nonstop fun trip, but such a great memory since it was our first together. I am truly sorry, upon reflection, that we didn't do more of this one-on-one time. It is such a gift to us both. Seriously, she's seventeen and I just dont have that much time with her living with me!! Can I just tell you what an amazing daughter I have? No, I can't. Blogspot doesn't have enough space.

This time, colds and well, girl issues had us down for the count. So, we rallied enough to go rent tons of chick flicks and got some of our favorite foods and camped out for days. Yup, we felt yucky. Yup, we were lazy. Yup, it was perfect for us. Dolce far niente (the pleasure of doing nothing). We all need to see who our kids are outside of being our kids. After just a few years, they cease being "kids" and become these people that really are quite amazing.

My parents always made me think that the only fun part about having kids was when they were little and blatantly said that the fun was OVER when we became teenagers. It's a lie. Don't ever believe it. Like with anything else, you get out of it what you put into it.

When my kids were little, everything was just a phase. That is how I got through everything. Literally, everything from potty training to the first girlfriend. With some perspective, childhood is just half of a second, isn't it?

With all of my years of piano lessons every single week with a total of three teachers, I remember very few moments about those lessons. Like literally three things and they had nothing to do with piano. I can play the piano, so I know I was there, but where did the memory of all that time go?
Our time with our kids at home is just a blip on the radar.
I will enjoy today so tomorrow, they still want to enjoy a day with me.
Perspective teaches me that I want to live for the next eighty trillion years, not just this eighty. Why spend my days filled with plans for the mysterious "someday"? Its the right thing to do, right? We insure and plan and invest instead of the living, laughing, and loving the plaques on our walls are supposed to be reminding us about. Let's sacrifice a bit of time today for the possibility of financial security tomorrow...?

Nope. I'm out on that. I have the very best retirement plan. For now, I live and love with the resources I've been given and trust my Daddy Who owns the cattle on a thousand hills for the rest. This means dreams are lived present tense, not in the future. He has NEVER let me down. Never. In fact, quite the opposite. The more I trust, the more He pours out. The more I tossed out my dreams and plans, the bigger the dreams and plans He had for me became and came to be!
Oh, this could get really dicey...moving on...

We just watched a movie called Dear John. Sweet movie with just one scene to fast-forward through (just cannot bring myself to watch a love scene with my kids). In it the guy holds his thumb up to the sky and he says that wherever the moon is in the sky a thumb is big enough to cover it up. You wink and hold your arm and thumb up and the moon hides. That's such a great perspective illustration.
So is this one:

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. (1 Cor. 13:12 MSG)