My husband works with someone who - when you tell him about a problem you're having at work, or in life - will say in his well-meaning, jovial way, "Well, I guess there are worse things!" Not exactly the sympathetic, supportive response you're looking for; rather annoying actually... but I've been thinking about this comment a lot lately as I've struggled to gain some perspective in certain areas of my life.
It's very, very easy to be consumed by your own life; the busy-ness, the worries, the planning. You can end up spending most of your time looking inward. That's why perspective is so important. The things that I get hung up on sometimes and that I waste time and energy thinking or worrying about are often so silly and petty. That's not to say that our concerns and problems are insignificant or that they don't matter (to God, or others) but just that we can spend too much time dwelling on them and lose sight of all the goodness and blessing in our lives. I know I definitely have a tendancy to fixate on an issue. Case in point: Before my son was sleeping through the night I would spend all this energy thinking and reading and researching what I could do to get him to sleep better. I drove my husband crazy talking about it. Yah, I was tired and it sucked sometimes getting up at 4am, but I wish I'd had the perspective to see that it was just a season, and that eventually he and I would both be sleeping better. And there were, as I'm sure my husband's co-worker would have told me, worse things. I have a beautiful, healthy son and if my only "problem" was getting up for a 4am feeding, than man, I'm pretty blessed!
All you have to do is turn on the news or open the newspaper and you're confronted by all the really big problems the world is facing - drought in Africa, political instability in Libya, solidiers and civilians being killed in Afghanistan. The mother of a good friend of ours is dying of cancer right now. I don't say that to be depressing or to make anyone feel guilty because the things we struggle with are certainly valid, but I think we really do need to gain some perspective at times and instead of focusing on the negative, be reminded of the many blessings we have that we so often take for granted. Clean water to drink, democracy, health, safety and security...
So my husband and I have started borrowing that oh-so-true phrase. When Wesley gets up too early for our tastes - "I guess there are worse things." Or when someone cuts us off in traffic - "I guess there are worse things." Because there are bigger issues that people are facing all over the world and that little dose of perspective is enough to make you count your blessings and thank the Lord for the richness in your life.
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