Day 18

Half way. Which works, because I'm half the woman I want to be!

So I am labeling this blog 'Perspective.' That is the word I have thought a lot about with this experiment. This isn't an actual scientific experiment, so I have realized I have no accurate tool for measuring my success or failure, or determining which habits are improving or hurting my life. It's all about my perspective of what I 'think' is making a difference. Two situations in my life lately have caused me to focus on this. The first involved a lot of poor assumtions made, which affected my interactions with someone in my life. The assumptions that were incorrectly made severly effected my perspective of this individual.

I'll use the second situation was directly connected to my experiment. My brother and sister-in-law were in a car accident this weekend during that terrible storm. They miraculously slid over an overpass and down the other side without rolling onto the freeway, or smashing into the K rails on either side. When we saw the space that their car fit through and the steep hill they slide down, I said, "It is a miracle you made it through that space without damaging your car or being injured." Jokingly he said, "It wasn't a miracle. The miracle would have been hitting the K rail so the car didn't go down the other side, and avoiding the three hour wait in the snow for the tow truck altogether!"

Perspective. Of course, he was joking, and feels very blessed that both of them walked away unharmed. But it really made me think about how I am viewing this whole experience. I could assume studying God's word every morning did or did not affect the guidance I felt in going home with my mom this weekend. Some of you would say it didn't. Some of you would insist it did. I could assume that attempting to delay my need for instant gratification in the form of Dr. Pepper wasn't helping me feel less tired, or healthier. Or I could change my perspective and realize that I've experienced a lot of character growth as a result. Again, which side would you take?

I guess the new criteria I will be using is my perspective. I choose to see the miracle. It doesn't change the actualities in my life. But it is changing my life in actuality.