Relief of Friday and Views on Perspective

It's been a long week preparing for our bi-annual Leadership Conference. When I got up this morning, I really didn't want to get up nor go to work. I have been sick for the last three weeks and I was so tired.

However, like most days that begin like that, there is something special in store if you put on your courage and get out of bed. As the second day of our leadership conference began, they played a video that was narrated by Dewitt Jones, National Geographic photographer.

There are many things that caught my attention, perhaps because he articulated photo-speak. But is was cool, perhaps one of the coolest parts of my day.

"When we begin to see things differently, we begin to do things differently," he said.

How very true! I also think about it in terms of the gospel. When we truly understand who we are and the divine lineage that is in us, we do things differently. Our attitudes change, our actions change, we change; and all because we see things differently.

Perspective affects a lot. Sheri Dew wrote, "When things aren't going well, when you want to quit, when it seems as though nothing is working, and certainly when your forward progress stops, the solution is often simply to back up."

Jones said creativity is a matter of perspective. Then I began to think about creativity and how I see it.

Sometimes, I feel a creative block. Many times the block comes from stress, a lack of having the spirit in my life. But all it may take to get the block out is to step back and look at life from a different vantage point.

"Creativity comes from falling in love with the world," Jones said. This is where you find your passion and the potential.

This is one of my new goals: To fall in love with the world every day; to bring out my passion and potential for life and the activities I perform. It is all a matter of perspective...

Jones then asked two questions:
- How do you bring creativity out so you can find the extraordinary solutions?
- How can we use creativity every day to make our work and our lives extraordinary?

We must be confident in ourselves that we will find the next right answer; and we can't be afraid to make mistakes. "When you are no longer afraid to make mistakes, that is when your patterns begin to change," Jones said. And it's not that we must destroy the patterns in our lives, but rather question them.

Will you strive to see things differently thereby helping you to do things differently, to question the patterns in your life?

Sister Sheri Dew tells a story about working graveyard shifts one holiday season so the company could fill all of its orders. One morning she decided to leave and run to the store to pick up a treat for all the people who were working that shift.

She was cruising along at about 1 a.m. and the road suddenly got dark. The next thing she knows there is a big clunk. Suddenly, her car will no longer go forward. She searches in her care, unsuccessfully, for a flash light. When she can't find one, she gets out of the car to look under her car and try to discover what she hit. But, to no avail, all she can see is there is something big wedged between the car and the road. Then, down the road she sees a group of people walking toward her.

At this point she calls for a tow truck and they tell her it's two hours at best before they can get anyone out to help her. She continues to explain her plight to the person on the other end and they seem unaffected by her situation and tell her there's nothing they can do.

So, she sitting in her car about to call 911 when she sees some flashing lights behind her. She said she had never been so grateful to see those lights, especially behind her. An officer can to her assistance and helped her look under the car with a flashlight.

When they are able to see, they notice it is a street lantern. "No wonder it's so dark along this stretch of road," he said. To get it out, all she had to do was back up. So simple.

If she had backed up and readjusted her course, it could have saved her a lot of fret.

"Whatever backing up means — and it can mean something different for every unique situation — there are many times in life when we simply need to back up, even just a few inches, before we can hope to zoom forward again spiritually," Sister Dew said.

Life has many experiences of stopping, backing up, making corrections, and then going forward. The scriptures illustrate many examples for us.

Amulek is one of those examples. He was a prominent citizen of Ammonihah who's whole life changed with the appearance of an angel. The angel told him to return home to receive a prophet of God.

Amulek, who was famous, rich, and had lots of friends, wouldn't have been a candidate for such and honor by the world's standards; but the Lord knew differently.

In his writings, Amulek denies ever having known the ways of the Lord. But then he stops, backs up, and reflectively admits, "I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power... Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear, therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God" (Alma 10:5-6).

His is a story for our day. He became consumed in the things of the world, but then he backed up. In this case it meant he had to acknowledge the error of his ways. He had to change his focus, outlook, and attitude, and it required him to turn around and head the other direction.

Amulek went on to preach with Alma and many great things were brought to pass because he stopped, backed up, made changes, and then went forward. Because of this change, he learned how to call upon the power of Jesus Christ.

When we begin to see things differently, we begin to do things differently. Our perspective will change so much and it may just be a matter of backing up, moving to the left or right a few inches, changing the lens you see out of, being confident you will find the next right answer.

"Train your technique and then put yourself in the places with the most potential," Jones said. The right answers will keep coming; be ready to take advantage of those windows of opportunity; have patience to focus on the vision, your personal vision; persevere.

"The light that lights my photographs is not the light on the outside, it's the light from within," he said. "That perspective is always there if we are open enough to see it."