Perspective

The so what for this week is stress.  When was the last time you met someone that to you that life was calm and they always had an excess of time.  I guess this may be the case for a few people but not many.  I don't think I remember the last time I was able to say my life was like this.  It seems as much as I look forward to the day when I will finish the tasks that are currently making my life a busy list of things to do it never actually comes.  Now before I go any further I want to point out that I completely recognize that this is one of those things that is not unique to me in any way and anybody reading this is thinking to themselves, "you think your life is busy?"  Well it is, and I am sure that yours is too.  The truth is we are all busy, and we will always be busy.  That truth brings me to my now what.

Perspective is my now what.  Life is busy, but what determines whether or not that busyness turns into stress or not is how we look at the situation.  Do we take the time to put things into perspective.  I have found that the best thing to do is step back, look at the big picture, and see that things don't matter as much as I think they do in the moment.  Showing up five minutes late for class will not matter two days from now.  Failing a test or getting a B+ in a class instead of an A- will probably not matter ten years from now.  If we take the eternal perspective it becomes even more clear what is important and what is not.  We start to realize that at the end of this life it will not matter what career we had, our social status, how well known we are amongst men, or how big our house is.  We quickly begin to see that the important things are family, how we treat and serve others, did we live our values, and what kind of person we have become.  In stressful busy times, which is pretty much all the time, a perspective like this can serve to calm us and refocus our efforts on what matters.  Unfortunately it is in the stressful times that this perspective is most difficult to maintain.  I am going to set a goal for myself that I will stop whenever I am stressed and force myself to think about these things and see what matters and what doesn't.  There are many ways to do this.  The one I will use is the scriptures.  I will take the time to read them whenever I am stressed and try to turn my thoughts and heart to an eternal view of my world.