Perpective
I believe that living a life well lived is all about our perspective. Our perspective can make or break us. It can build up our relationships or it can tear them down. It can give us frown lines or laugh lines. Perspective is huge. It is how we mentally view something or someone. It is how we see it and how we see it affects how we take it in internally and process it and digest it and react to it. If we see something with a negative perspective then we take it in negatively, process it negatively and digest it negatively. If we, however, see with a positive perspective then we take it in, process it and digest it all positively.
One can see a great example of perspective in the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis in the Bible. Joseph was the most loved son of his father, Jacob. This made all of his brothers jealous and angry and they hated Joseph. The brothers came up with a plan to take Joseph out into the dessert and kill him. When they got to the place where they were going to kill him some some Ishmaelites came riding by on their camels and they bought Joseph and he became a slave. He was taken to Egypt and because of his positive work ethic became one of the top stewards for Potiphar, a man of high power in Egypt. Due to unforeseen circumstances he ended up jail for years. Everyone in jail loved him because he was kind and helpful and could interpret dreams. His skills in dream interpretation caught the eye of Pharaoh and he was released from jail and helped Egypt survive years of famine. Joseph saved the day and the people of Egypt!
Now Joseph could have been a very bitter man and sought revenge on his brother for selling I into slavery. Yet, he chose to have a positive perspective on the whole situation. Joseph uses the phrase when talking to his brothers who had wanted to kill him but ended up selling him into slavery. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 5:20) Joseph could have very easily, and rightfully so, just been pissed as his brothers for what they did to him. Instead he changed his perspective from poor me to the perspective of look at the great things God did with this situation. He had a positive perspective. His positive perspective helped him to reconcile his relationships with his brothers.