Life is all a matter of perspective, that's what I tell my kids. That's why I seek advice from friends, family, priesthood leaders, and especially Heavenly Father. I consult him on most everythng. Don't ge me wrong, I don't ask him what I should make for dinner or what color shoes I should buy, but the important matters and the ones that confuse me. If I have a stupor of thought over a particular problem I take it to Him. He allways gives me an answer, not the one I want allways, or the one I think is best. When I follow those promptings though I find peace and the stupor of thought disapears. I can smile, breath, and not panic. I have an analogy about perspective that I use often. If you are standing in one place and you see a pole, that's great. You can see the pole. If you take a single step to the right you can see that there are many poles all in a row. If you take another step to the right you'll notice that the poles are all connected together by a long rod. Yet another step reveals that the poles lead to a tree that is very pleasing. It has fruit that looks lush and sweet. If you hold onto that rod and follow it along the row of poles remembering to keep the tree in your perspective you will reach that tree and "partake of the fruit thereof". If you never take that first step to see it from another angle you'll never know the tree or the rod or the other poles are there. All you'll ever see is the pole in front of you. Perspective doesn't take pain away, only healing does. Healing takes time, faith, endurance, and love. I have healed. I have found the time to heal. I have found the faith to let myself heal. I have found enough endurance to get through the pain. I have found love from family, friends, and Heavenly Father. Love is the final key to healing. The tree in Lehi's vision is not refered to as the love of God by accident. We need to heal all the way through life. sometimes we are nursng multiple wounds, and/or deep gaping ones. When we allow love, the true and real love the Savior offers, into our life and our pain, we find healing. Love can come from so many different places, but when it is genuine, when it is likened to the love our Savior has for us, then it can and will heal all wounds. I worked in a gas staion as a teenager and it doubled as a bus staion. Late one night the bus pulled in and the driver evicted one of the passengers. She ran off the bus and out into the wintery Nevada desert night. I asked the bus driver what I should do and his attitude was, "she ain't my problem, call the cops", as he handed the shoe she had left behind in her speedy departure. I did call the police so that she could be found and not be sitting out there in the cold night. At almost sunlight this woman that the police had no luck locating, snuck up and under the front window of the station. I went out to her and saw hudled on the pavement below the window a shivering paper thin woman with fire in her eyes. The bus driver had told me she was crazy and was spitting on other passengers. I asked her if she was allright and helped her into the station to sit by the space heater. I noticed as I went to put her lost shoe back on her bare foot that she had a cut on her foot and it was slightly swolen. I asked her what happened and she started into a strory that deffinatly put her in the luney catagory. Part of her stoy included being kidnapped and taken to Novascocia, and part was about how the devil bit her foot in the desert when she was tempted by him. Then she looked up at me, and as she looked into my eyes her countenance changed, and she said smiling, " you have the eyes of Jesus". I gave her $20 and tried to put her on the next bus but she insisted on hitching a ride with a truck driver instead. I will never forget how the fire left her eyes, as she looked at me with recolection, and was replaced with a more peaceful look. I did have the eyes of Jesus at that moment because I saw her as a soul with grief, pain, and needs just as I had. Because they were different needs than mine I could have over looked them the way the bus driver and polce did. Instead I chose to look from another perspective and brought, even if it was brief, healing to that sick and hurting woman. I have recently found that kind of healing love effecting my life in gigantic ways. The love Christ has for us is unending, unimaginable, and has been said to be matchless. I dissagree that it is matchless. I think we are all to love with that same love and to strive all our lives to match it. In that we can find healing for others and ourselves. I resolve to love with the love of Christ so that I can love him back. There is no better reward than love itself. Shane

Tags: Love Jesus Christ Perspective