{"id":104,"date":"2025-07-11T20:09:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T01:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/?p=104"},"modified":"2025-07-11T20:10:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T01:10:44","slug":"perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last January, while we were in El Salvador, we were in the north of Apopa area and were going door-to-door inviting people to come to an event that evening where they could receive some needed items and hear the Gospel.\u00a0 Unfortunately we did not get to attend the event, we had to get back to San Salvador before it started.\u00a0 But we were spit in groups and walking down these rows of houses.\u00a0 Such a unique and beautiful place.\u00a0 The houses were, of course, connected to one another, sharing external walls and then facing one another across two walkways with an area in between where flowers or food-giving plants were growing.<\/p>\n

\"A \"plant \"A<\/p>\n

We walked down one and were about to loop back up to head up the next row when we heard a noise.\u00a0 The road that went behind the streets was dirt.\u00a0 We crossed it and came to one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, it was the water we were hearing, the Rio Aceluate.\u00a0 Fast flowing, beautiful.\u00a0 The mountains in the background, the greenery, even the clouds in the sky were perfect.\u00a0 We could not help but stop a few minutes and enjoy the beauty of Creation.\u00a0 Two boys approached us soon thereafter and talked with us a little while.<\/p>\n

Having been a photographer, though mostly portraits, I knew how to line up my shot and I took the photo above, framing it ever so carefully.\u00a0 But a thought occurred to me and I took a much different shot using the wide angle setting…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There it is, the same mountain, same river, same trees, same sky, same clouds… but now we can see what we were so willing to look past to see the beauty.<\/p>\n

It’s all about perspective.<\/p>\n

When something happens, it’s helpful to stop and think for a moment: is it something that is going to affect me or be a problem tomorrow?\u00a0 In a week?\u00a0 A month?\u00a0 A year or even five?\u00a0 Is it worth worrying over?\u00a0 How about I just put it in God’s hands and let go?<\/p>\n

Similarly, we need to look past this life and into eternity.\u00a0 Granted, it’s hard.\u00a0 Oftentimes, really hard.\u00a0 I also struggle with this on a day to day basis.\u00a0 I constantly have to put myself in check.\u00a0\u00a0When we fix our eyes on eternity, the hardships of life begin to lose their grip on our hearts. The pain, disappointments, and imperfections we face now are temporary, but God\u2019s promises are everlasting.\u00a0 Looking past the undesirable things doesn\u2019t mean ignoring them, it means choosing to see them in the light of what\u2019s to come.\u00a0 As 2 Corinthians 4:17 reminds us, \u201cFor our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.\u201d Eternity gives us perspective, hope, and the strength to endure with purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last January, while we were in El Salvador, we were in the north of Apopa area and were going door-to-door inviting people to come to an event that evening where they could receive some needed items and hear the Gospel.\u00a0 Unfortunately we did not get to attend the event, we had to get back to […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32,31,27,30,29,28],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel","tag-beauty","tag-creation","tag-el-salvador","tag-perspective","tag-thoughts","tag-travels","h-entry","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valerie.xyz\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}