Perspective.

(Body Pump. At the YMCA. Every Tuesday @ 11. Free Admission for ASU students! Yes, it's a very good idea ;)

Today, I received the grade from the test I took yesterday. Yesterday morning, I took my first exam as a senior in college, and didn't do as well as I had hoped. I walked out of the exam confident, feeling like I had done well, and this morning discovered otherwise (okay, I got a B -- but still).

This morning, I was upset and I felt the tears beginning to well up. This exam happened to cover a topic that I am greatly familiar with and I felt well prepared going into it... I felt like I should have done better, much better. While rationalizing my tears away, I began to think "why does this even bother me? A 'B' isn't so bad."

It was then that I made the decision to live in the light of FOREVER. Nursing school is just a season. In the light of eternity, this test grade won't matter. The fact that I worked out at the gym today won't mean a thing when my earthly body ceases to exist and my spirit is met with a NEW body, a body that resides at the feet of my Creator. My name won't mean a thing when I am gone and given a NEW name -- a name that will embody my identity and reason for existence.

My encouragement to you, my encouragement to me, is this: Measure your current (difficult) circumstance with eternity as your yardstick... and be prepared to watch your disappointment, tears, worries, stress and pain melt away. May that bring you to a place of worship.


(Just before clinical last Thursday... it was out of focus, but then again, so were we! We were sooo tired)