Summary: <br> Perspective can change everything. Seeing things from a different perspective will take the hardest of circumstances and make them bearable. A shift in perspective helps us make sense of the nonsense. Just like the perspective from an airplane window shows us streets that all intersect and rivers that connect, getting a glimpse of God’s view on our life will reveal a greater picture. A picture where all things are leading to something good. A picture greater than we could possibly imagine standing here on the ground today.<br> My friend Rachel just buried her 16 year old son Luke. I watched his celebration of life on Facebook over the weekend. This family has shown tremendous faith and strength in this unfathomable loss. God has allowed them a glimpse of his perspective. He has allowed them to imagine how he welcomed their sweet Luke home to an eternity in paradise, and he has also allowed them to imagine the impact his story will have on the lives of countless others. The lives his life will be used to save. The story of a red headed 16 year old boy who loved life and pranks, created hysterical laughter everywhere he went, made a poor choice of taking 2 Percocet the Sunday before last, and it took his life. Percocet potentially laced with something lethal. A risk every single person takes when they buy a 2nd hand pill. Now my friend Rachel and this family will undoubtedly do the work of the almighty, spreading his story to save the lives of others who could so easily make the same choice. This perspective has given them purpose in this pain and they will be able to get out of bed today because they have a mission. Blessed with a mission. Blessed with perspective.<br> Yesterday my Mama had a hard day. She’s an incredibly strong woman who has been nothing but faithful in the loss of her sweetheart, my Daddy. Yesterday would have been their 48th wedding anniversary. It was the first February 11th they weren’t by one another’s side in 48 years. She spent her day yesterday remembering. Remembering how blessed she was to have had all those years to share with him. How God has been so generous to give her a husband that loved so well. Enough love to last a lifetime. She has been blessed.<br> Perspective. Can we see our blessings, or do we need a new perspective? Can we be trusted to know exactly what we have today, even while having it?<br> Oh, what if we could have that perspective today? To know that we are undoubtedly, undeniably, unequivocally blessed! To open our eyes and realize we are surrounded with an abundance of answered prayers and favor every moment of our lives, including this moment. Let me prove it to you.<br> Do you have someone in your life that you love? I bet you once prayed for them didn’t you? And you got them. But have you forgotten they are a blessing? Have you forgotten they are an answered prayer because now they’re messy and moody and slightly demanding? How quickly we forget the gifts we have received when the gifts grow a little old.<br> At 15 years old I literally prayed for my husband. I was looking for some new boys to come to my little country town of Ava, Missouri, stat. It was a serious matter because by about the 7th grade every boy in my school was either my cousin or I had already dated him, or worse … he was my cousin and I had already dated him. So I prayed. I prayed to the God I was just beginning to know and I asked him to bring some new boys to our school. As a result of my prayer, and some other extenuating circumstances I never took the time to learn about, a family was uprooted from Dallas, Texas and their UHaul showed up on a little farm outside of my hometown. This family included a 17 year old male. We just called him “new boy” and he was an answer to my prayers. We began dating immediately, I married him 6 days after my high school graduation, and 3 kids and 25 years later, he’s still mine.<br>
