I’m so grateful and excited that Echo is beginning her new column “Higher Perspective” on this website. Living from the higher perspective of the Divine is absolutely crucial in terms of how we see and respond to the current circumstance we find ourselves in.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I’m a big fan of the saying, “Life happens FOR you, and not to you.” As Echo writes in her introduction to her new column, we’re good at playing the victim card. I’ve found that little saying packs a punch, and can help me to stop me from seeing myself as a victim.

I often think about the higher perspective when I’m out in a public setting, like a grocery store or retail store. How often do we see a baby or toddler having some sort of tantrum ? They’re upset because something isn’t going as they think it should. They can’t get what they want, or whatever the crisis of the moment might be.

I think about how we all are or have been toddlers in our responses to life. Life circumstances that have really happened for us, and not to us. But to the child in the store, the world is coming to an end.

And then there’s the perspective of the parent, who sees it all in terms of the big picture. They know their child’s world is not coming to an end. Life will carry on just fine if Ellie doesn’t get what she wants in this moment. They know it’s actually better that Ellie doesn’t get what she wants, or that she really doesn’t need it. Mom or Dad know that Ellie will be taken care of, and will get everything she truly needs in it’s own time and place.

Such is the higher perspective of God who witnesses our little (or big) tantrums over life as they really are. And witnesses it over and over again! I still throw one from time to time!

Any parent knows this all takes a great deal of patience. And our patience as parents (through our exhaustion) runs awfully thin sometimes doesn’t it? Thank the Divine that it’s patience is infinite and inexhaustible. Through many, many lifetimes. Absolutely amazing!

Did the parent always have this higher/big picture perspective? No! They themselves at one time were toddlers probably throwing the exact same tantrums! They (like we all) have to go through the tantrums to come to know what we need to know. That all is well. In other words, we simply have to grow up (which isn’t so simple, as we all know.)

Thank you Echo and enjoy her column!

Pastor Tim Tengblad

timtengblad@comcast.net  I welcome your questions, comments, and your story.