Perspective

Yesterday I was in my kitchen and I dropped something on the floor.  I had to get on my knees to get it and I made the mistake good fortune of looking up at my oven. 
Gross!  Under the handle was nasty!  I then looked at the broiler drawer and pulled it out a little.  Gross! 
When I stood up and looked down, it looked perfectly clean.  But getting down and looking at it from a different perspective showed me how much dirt and grime I had been missing.
When my mom had surgery, I was able to go and spend the day with her in the hospital.  She was not feeling good (duh...just had surgery!) and needed a lot of help.  It felt like such an honor to be there for her.  She kept apologizing after asking for help.  I told her to quit apologizing because it was a privilege to me to be able to help her.
My grandma is in the hospital right now, and her daughter (my aunt) is there helping take care of her.  She put it this way:

"I love my parents so much and it is clear how the circle of life takes us almost back to that helpless stage that we are born into.We lovingly care for our babies and we lovingly care for our aged parents. Mom thinks she is a bother but I feel privileged to have this time with her. She is a beautiful person."

I needed my mom to look at it from a different perspective.  I was thrilled to be there for her.
I think this is true of our lives.  We spend so much time looking at our trials and problems from one direction.  We need to stop and take a look at them from a different perspective.  From an eternal perspective. 
I remember when The Doctor was out of work.  It was Christmas Eve and I was really struggling.  The Doctor gave me a blessing and Heavenly Father told me to be strong because this trial would be for a short time.  I was renewed and excited.  Fast forward to a year later and we were still struggling.  I didn't understand what had happened. 
I forgot to look at my trials with an eternal perspective, remembering that one day for our Heavenly Father is 1000 years.  So for Him, 3 years in my time is about 4 1/2 minutes for him.  So yes, that is a short time in the eternal perspective.
It's all about perception.  Maybe we need to get down on our knees more often to get a better perspective on life.