Shift Your Perspective and Embrace God’s Plan

You keep comparing your starting point to someone else’s finished success, and that’s distracting and discouraging you. But if you change your perspective—truly, deeply shift the way you see things—everything will look different.

I remember how my dad, a barber, used to see the world. Whenever we ate at a nice restaurant, he would calculate how many haircuts it took to pay for that meal. That was his frame of reference.

Today, God blesses us in so many ways. Sure, compared to some, I may not have much—but compared to others, I have more than enough. Either way, if we focus on the wrong comparisons, we end up trapped in dissatisfaction.

My dad had to drop out of middle school to support his family. When I look at where God has brought me—not because of my own strength, but because of His grace—I can’t help but be grateful. Gratitude changes everything. It’s all about reframing your perspective.

Your frame of reference determines whether you praise God or throw yourself a pity party. The foundation is the same, but how you see it makes all the difference. You might envy others, but you don’t see what they’re struggling with. Some of them would give anything to have what you take for granted.

The other day, someone asked me, “Would you trade everything to be Kanye?” My answer was clear: “No. Because if I were him, I wouldn’t get to be my children’s father. That’s a bad trade.”

The enemy tries to make us wish we were someone else, but I refuse to fall into that trap. Instead, I’m going to embrace the foundation God has given me. I’ll work on it, grow with it, and become better. I’ll study wisdom—whether from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Proverbs, or Philippians—but I won’t waste time wishing I were someone else. Wishing won’t change anything. Neither will worrying.

You’ve been so distracted by disappointment that you’ve lost sight of what truly matters. You’re comparing your empty seats to someone else’s full arena. But why? What has the enemy made you focus on so intensely that you’ve forgotten to look at the blessings around you?

I’ll be honest—it’s hard for me, too. By nature, I tend to focus on what’s wrong instead of what’s right. I see the glass half empty. Actually, I don’t even see the glass—I want to know who spilled the water! But I’m working on it. I’m learning to appreciate what God has given me.

Think about this: when the Israelites were rebuilding the temple, their enemies tried to stop them—but they couldn’t. Yet, what their enemies failed to do, the Israelites did to themselves. For 16 years, the foundation sat untouched—until God spoke through Haggai and declared, “What I will do next will be greater than what I did before.”

Better is not found in going backward.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Not was. Not will be. IS. Freedom exists in the present moment.

Many of us need to stop making peace with the past and start making peace with the present. We get caught up in yesterday’s regrets or tomorrow’s worries, but God’s power is available now.

Moses once had to wear a veil to hide God’s glory, but today, we can look upon the Lord’s glory without barriers. We are being transformed into His image.

The challenge is that while God gives us a vision of who we are becoming, the enemy tries to show us something different—our worst mistakes, our deepest fears, other people’s lives. But Scripture reminds us: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Freedom to become the person God created you to be.

Freedom to build the life God called you to build with the gifts and resources He has given you.

So as this year comes to a close, when I say the word is better, I don’t mean you’ll get a better house or a better spouse. I mean that through God, you will become better.