Peace: Seeing Through the Eyes of Others

I was reading a post on LinkedIn by John Maxwell. It stated “I made a commitment to see through the eyes of others before I asked them to see things from my perspective.”

When I seen this it was on a very early Sunday morning and I had just woken up out of my sleep ( I must had fallen asleep working on a photography project) and for some reason something told me to go upstairs and check on the kids. They were young at the time, had fallen asleep watching a movie, and were sprawled out on the floor and couch in the loft. Anyway, prior to that moment, I told them if you watch a movie don’t fall asleep on the floor or couch because I don’t want anyone to have an accident in those areas. Be sure to get in your bed. Well they did exactly the opposite of what I told them lol. They had fallen asleep on the floor and couch with full bladders.

My perspective could have been “they didn’t listen and I hope no one has an accident on the carpet or couch” etc. I could have woke them up to express my disappointment in them not listening etc. Instead I looked through the eyes of my children and gathered their perspective.

Their perspective in my eyes was: "let’s hangout; this is cool because my big brother is here watching a movie with me; I’m tired but I’m happy in this moment; It’s kind of fun hanging out with my little sisters, and she is copying me with taking a blanket everywhere; they must like me to want to hang out with me; I’m dozing off, but I can cherish this feeling for 5 more minutes." Then the sleep monster hit everyone lol!

The point is no matter how big or small of a moment this may seem, I chose to not get upset. I "chose" to see through their perspective "FIRST" (It's important to do it "First" because if negativity is first most times the hurt will cancel out any positivity that comes afterward due to our nature to gravitate toward negativity/sin/flesh/blame). Therefore, I "chose" peace "FIRST" over my own selfish negative thoughts that wanted to resonate initially. That’s just one example that we all can apply to many scenarios throughout life. The hard part is “choosing the perspective”. Kids don’t always get a fair shake because they are supposed to listen and do what the parents tell them to do; but sometimes parents (to include myself) are wrong. So therefore you have to catch yourself in those moments and look in the eyes of a kiddo and remember you were at that stage in your life once before. Then step back and see things from their perspective and create love out of a moment of possible disparity.

I can tell you first hand I'm not perfect, and doing this is hard sometimes due to our nature and situations at hand; but if we ALL look in the eyes of another and "choose" to see their perspective FIRST (husband, wife, kids, mom, sister, brother, best friend, patient, co-worker, customer, etc.) AND that same choice from the other is reciprocated; 9 times out of 10 I can guarantee you will create peace and love thus preventing a chaotic moment of disparity. It starts with YOU and your choice. Have you ever chosen to look from another’s point of view in challenging situations? Comment below as we are always open to new perspectives of life experiences to help impact others.