I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately when it comes to human perspective.

My mom recently told me that throughout her life she had noticed that when she had an unexpected expense come up, she also had an unexpected source of income come up days prior to it that allowed her to cover the unexpected expense. She expressed gratitude toward God that He would always provide for her and protect her this way.  As I heard my mother say this, I was reminded of a conversation I overheard years ago at church.  The circumstances were the same, but the perspective was different.  A lady was complaining that in her life whenever she would get some unexpected income something would always break or happen that would make her have to spend the unexpected money.  She complained about never being able to get ahead in life because every time she’d get a little extra money, she’d have to spend it.  She felt angry at God for this.  For years I had remembered her words.  So when my mother spoke of the same situation, but spoke of it in a different way, I began to think.  How is it that the same situation can cause one person to feel gratitude while it can cause another to feel anger?

It’s all about perspective.

From the lady I overheard at church perspective, it was a problem to have an unexpected expense come up days after unexpected money came to her.  From my mother’s perspective, it was a blessing to have the unexpected income come to her in preparation to cover the unexpected expense.  Both were sincere in their feelings, but had two very different perspectives, and because of it, they had two very different outcomes.

I thought about this in my frustrating extended car ride that my lovely cell phone GPS had taken me on. I started to correlate how the perspective we choose to take in life is very much like the directions we choose to follow to any given destination. Our chosen perspective can frustrate us and delay us in arriving to where we are trying to go, or it can joyfully and speedily take us to our destination.

We can see this in several areas of our lives. In the past weeks there have been issues circulated in the media about young women who were dissatisfied with the modesty requirements that their schools had as part of their dress codes. One Canadian young woman’s shorts were shorter than the dress code allowed. This young woman chose to take the perspective that the dress code was shaming girls for their bodies and teaching boys that girls are sexual objects. Ironically, another perspective that supports the use of dress codes, believes the academic research that shows that body revealing clothing actually increases body dissatisfaction among females.  It contributes to girls disliking their own bodies (body shaming) and considers short shorts to be way of putting females on display, something to be looked at, which actually present girls as sexual objects.

Same dress code.  Two different perspectives.  

One perspective views modesty as a repressive burden. Another perspective views modesty as an empowering guideline.

And as we know, the perspective we choose to view things through will take us to different places.  It will give us different outcomes. We can see this same situation - different perspectives - different outcome model with a variety of things in life.  It’s everywhere. So where then is a person to stand on issues that have such vastly contrasting positions?  Where will our perspective lead us?

The answer will be in knowing where you want to end up at.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55: 8-9. KJV

So then who are the “experts” and the “smart” devices?

Again, that answer will depend on the perspective you choose to take. One perspective will say that they are church leaders, parents or other authority figures.  Another perspective will say that they are the learned, self-proclaimed experts, or those who see themselves as wise in their own eyes. My view is that they are the latter.

These “experts” may agree to some principles that God has instituted, but they think God needs a little advice.  So in order to convince God that He needs help, these “experts” and “smart” devices decide to plea to the God’s of this world; the media, and public opinion. They attempt to get the media to cover their story and shame God into changing His mind.  -As if God is afraid of bad press.  They seek to counsel God. They attempt to get God to change His position to match theirs.  It’s as in a sense they are telling God that they themselves know better than He.   Somehow in their own perspective they themselves have become smarter than God.

“O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men [and women]! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.”

“But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”

This lobbying to the press tactic was demonstrated in a recent Christian home-school prom where modesty standards were enforced.  One participant to this church prom was asked to leave due to what the prom organizers claimed was “inappropriate behavior” and her dress not meeting the required length.  This young girl posted a picture of her dress and appealed to the public.  The media picked it up with headlines that read: “Is this dress too short?” 

She claimed the reason she was kicked out was because “perverted” men, who in her perspective, were “ogling” over her.  In her own account of the story she wrote: “We were a little grossed out by all the dads on the balcony above the dance floor, ogling and talking amongst themselves.”   She reported to feel "violated" by the presence "of male parent" chaperons. Later in a YouTube video that she posted, she recanted her comment about the dads at the prom being "perverts."  She did this after several attendants to the prom and chaperons came forth with what they had witnessed. An adult female chaperon at the dance reported: “It was dark, and crowded. It would have been impossible for her to tell what they were looking at, much less if they were leering lustfully 20 feet above.”

The teen reported in a blog that she wrote that she was initially confronted about the length of her dress.  She said she showed that the dress was the proper length and then was told “well make sure it stays pulled down, it’s too short.” The adult female chaperon who reported an eye witness of the account said she seen that the teen “pulled the spandex dress down so that it is fingertip length, but at the prom the hemline sat right below her butt cheeks.”   Anyone who has ever worn a form fitting dress knows that these types of dresses can rise up as one moves.  It’s easy to understand that the teen had to pull the length down when confronted because she herself reported that she was asked to make sure it *stayed* down.  Her response to not being able to do this was that she (in her own words) reported to have “a big ass for a teenager.”  Eventually, she was asked to leave the event.  Her response to this was to go to the media and complain about it.

Modesty is not the only issue that has faced this, but the results of these attempts are the same. In the words of the adult female chaperon at the church prom, we teach “that being the victim gets a bigger reward than being accountable.” Situations like this and similar ones where individuals are held accountable for their choices but then attempt to portray themselves as victims, take away from legitimate situations where people actually have been victimized.