Changing Your Perspective

How we view our world often affects the choices we make. Two different situations involving a similar item made me think about these things.

One morning I was driving to work and passed by where someone had either dropped trash along the road, or the trash had flown out of someone’s vehicle. I saw the debris along the road was nothing but garbage. A crow, on the other hand, had picked up a piece in its mouth and began to fly away with it. I wish I could have told the crow that it was hanging onto nothing but garbage. That piece of plastic bag in its beak would provide no substance and would be a waste of its time. If only the bird could have seen it from my perspective.

Another similar moment took place ten years ago. I was training a beautiful horse to be more confident. We had spent almost the whole summer riding every day, and he had become a much braver horse than when we started. On this day, his training session was going well. He had maintained relaxation and was focused on the tasks I had given him. We had just finished, and I sat on him as he walked around the arena to cool down after his workout, when suddenly it all changed. A plastic bag had been caught in the breeze and came flying into the arena. The once calm horse now saw the flying object and hit flight mode. He had lost his marbles! I was able to ride out his scare and stay in the saddle. After his episode, I laughed at him and thought, if only he knew it was just a plastic bag. It couldn’t hurt him. It wouldn’t hurt him. But all he could see was danger. If only the horse could have seen it from my perspective.

When I look back over both these instances, it reminds me of how narrow our perspectives can be in relation to God’s perspective.

In the instance of the crow, the plastic bag was something the crow thought was good but was actually a waste. With the horse, the plastic bag looked terrifying, but wouldn’t hurt him at all. In life we have many plastic bags. They can look good, or they can look scary. If we try to face them in our own strength, we might pick the things that hurt us or run from things that will grow us. God is the only one with the full perspective of how these things will influence us. With Him as our guide, we can see clearly and be overcomers.

In Psalm 16:8 we read, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

By setting our eyes on Christ, we can gain the correct perspective: The perspective that He is in control, He loves us, and He will use everything in our lives to grow us and shape us into who He desires us to be. But this can only happen if we let Him change our mindset. 

Becky Benedict

An upstate New York transplant, Becky now resides in Waynesboro, PA where she works full- time as a veterinary nurse and part-time as a horse-riding instructor. She has always had a great love for animals with horses being at the forefront. She is a Miracle Mountain Ranch alumnus. At that ranch, she learned to turn her love for horses into a tool to share the gospel. The horse and trainer relationship parallels many truths about our relationship with God that we see in scripture. Horses are great tools to demonstrate trust, obedience, and the majesty of God. Becky shares these things in her own teaching at B Squared Horsemanship. She has spoken at churches and events with her horses. Her favorite things are reading good books, sitting in coffee shops, hiking with her dog, and riding horses.