Perspective
The youth sometimes correctly, sometimes incorrectly get labeled as being over dramatic with their personal issues. They’re always told by their parents or other adults that “Once you get older you’ll realize how unimportant the things that you are freaking out about really are and you’ll start to get perspective on what truly matters in life.”
While it is true that many times the youth will freak out and dramatize things that really are not that important; many of these same adults giving this advice, still freak out over trivial matters that in the end really don’t matter either. They just believe it does because now they are an adult and therefore the things that they care about now are important whereas the things that they cared about in high school are not. Just because you’ve become older and what mattered to you in high school doesn’t matter as much to you now, doesn’t necessarily mean that the things that you are stressing about now are any more important.
One of the hardest things that we’ll ever do in life is gain perspective. It is so incredibly hard to do and so very few individuals actually do it. Just because you grow older and become an adult, doesn’t mean that you still won’t over dramatize your life with pointless matters. What we need to learn is how to take perspective so that things don’t get blown out of proportion. When life gets hard, take a step back. When you run into disappointment, take a step back. The further back you are able to look, the more aligned your viewpoint will become with God’s overall plan.
You don’t have to win every Facebook debate. It’s ok just to walk away. You don’t always have to have the last word in a discussion. When you fail to achieve a goal, don’t get frustrated or take it that you failed as an individual. Failure is not the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is apathy and not being able to progress. The worst case scenario is mediocrity because it deceives you into thinking that you are progressing when in reality all you are doing is going nowhere. Failure allows you to reset and find a new path or many times a better path.
How many of you have heard the hidden corridor analogy? It is an experience that every successful person has experienced at some point in their life. The hidden corridor analogy essentially states that even though the initial door that you opened and walked through didn’t lead you to the destination that you were hoping it would, it will bring you down the hallway to another corridor that contains the door that does. However, you would have never found this door had you not gone through the initial (but incorrect door) in the first place.
Everyone over dramatizes their lives including Bishops, high school students, mother, fathers etc. etc… We all run into times or situations in our lives where we place too much value or time and energy into things or efforts that really don’t matter. But as we make a habit of taking a step back, trying to gain a more Godlike perspective, you’ll be amazed at the wondrous things you’ll see. Because like I said earlier, the further back you look from, the closer you’ll be to seeing yourself as God does.
