Perspective

A particular perspective is a particular way of thinking about something, especially one that is influenced by your beliefs or experiences.

Collins Dictionary

I was speaking with a couple the other day and we were discussing their marriage. I had talked with them two weeks earlier, and they had been making progress in their relationship, treating each other with more understanding, respect and patience. In this session, they talked about how the prior week up to this session, they had been arguing, and they wondered how it could be that they were not agreeing on anything.

It struck me that they were concentrating on the past week, and that they had discounted the progress they had made in the months earlier. I told them that from my perspective, the past week had been a blip on the screen, and that they had somehow managed to not remember that overall, they had been doing better- doing the homework I suggested, feeling accountable for new behaviors, etc.

I reminded them that it is easy to forget, in the present moment, the big picture. Overall, they were doing better. I asked them not to make the past week the benchmark of their progress. I used the example of perspective. I often put my hand right in front of my face, and all I can see is a dark blob of flesh. I have a very small and bleak picture if I concentrate on that.

However, as I move my hand away from my face, my perspective changes, and my view gets much wider. I can see the whole picture, and my hand is just a small part of the view.

So it goes also with our recency bias. We tend to be prisoners of the moment sometimes. Take a look at a broader picture, and it probably looks a lot brighter!

Prayer: Lord, help us to see perspective when we get bogged down in the moment, Amen