A couple of nights ago, I was at my nephew's soccer game. A number of players on his team wear glasses. My brother mentioned that it would be better if they wore contacts because glasses are a disadvantage to a soccer player. Anyone that's worn glasses can totally understand what he meant. Your peripheral vision is less clear - hence why I hate driving with my prescription glasses on. The glasses frame blocks out areas of vision, too. As one player that got hit in the face can attest to, you can't see the whole picture!
I was scheduled to give a spiritual thought in a meeting yesterday, and this conversation kept coming to mind. I searched "vision" in the Gospel Library App to see if anything stood out to me. There are two directions this search took me. I'll write a follow-up post to the second direction later.
Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are omniscient. They have a full picture of everything that was, is and ever will be. As mere mortals, we can only see a glimpse of what they see. They see the whole picture of a situation, where we only see our view of the situation. It's as if we're wearing our glasses, focused on only what we can see, there's a whole world out there that's blurry.
There's a story that Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared once of eight blind men that wanted to know what an elephant was. They were brought to the elephant and each would describe the elephant by only the part that they were able to touch. As one talked about the long trunk, the rest would argue with him, because that was not what the elephant was according to their knowledge. The argument continued as each person described what an elephant was.
I was thinking about how I see things. I've been trying to improve myself, by not reading into things. I am queen of reading into every dumb thing. Like, I could totally take something at face value or I could say to myself, It really meant this... or So, what this tells me... or If I only didn't say or did say..., you get the picture. It takes me down this spiral of negative thinking. I took a self-reliance class to learn some tools to work through negative thoughts like that. It's an amazing class that I think everyone should have. If it doesn't help make you more emotionally resilient, it teaches you ways to help others become more emotionally resilient. Here's a link to the Emotional Resilience manual.
When we turn to the Savior, He will help us see what He sees. As our perspective changes, we can face challenges and changes, think outside of the box our minds sometimes get trapped in, and have clearer vision of our trials, our lives, and others.
Jeffery R. Holland said, "... through the incessant din and drumbeat of our day, may we strive to see Christ at the center of our lives, of our faith, and of our service. That is where true meaning lies. And if some days our vision is limited or our confidence has waned or our belief is being tested and refined -as surely it will be- may we then cry out the louder, 'Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.' I promise with apostolic fervor and prophetic conviction that He will hear you and will say, soon or late, 'Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.'"
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