Fresh Perspective

I love to read magazines. They inspire me and give me great ideas about fashion, home décor, and entertaining. One of my favorites is Architectural Digest. I read each issue, absorb the fabulous pictures and amazing styles, then look back at my home with a fresh eye to keeping my home at its very best. Not Architectural Digest standards, but better than it was and good enough for me.

This is very important because I hate housekeeping. I dread anything to do with making up my bed, keeping up with the laundry, preparing meals, cleaning the kitchen . . . Martha Stewart, I’m not. (Evidently all of those homemaking genes skipped me entirely and went directly to my sister. If you know Christie Ray, you know exactly what I’m talking about!) But after reading a copy of Architectural Digest or Real Simple or even InStyle with their pictures of new ideas and stars’ exciting decorating touches, I have to get back into my living room and my kitchen and give it another go. And the results are always satisfying . . . for me and my family. I have a fresh perspective when I look at my home and I’m inspired to make it into the very best it can be.

The other day I was listening to a recording by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir as they sang one of my favorite songs, “Heaven on My Mind.” The recording was done live, so you could hear the audience response when they reached a certain part of the lyric just the way our congregation does when we perform it at our church:

     And another thing,

     I don't have time to be bothered with he said, she said, that they said.
     Because it's all I can do to keep my own self in line. . . .
     I'm gonna keep on working for Jesus
     Everyday of my life,

          cause I've got heaven on my mind. (by Luther Barnes)

Seriously, every time we have ever performed that with the Trevecca Community Church (TCC) choir and orchestra, the congregation just about comes out of its seats when we hit that line: “I don't have time to be bothered with he said, she said, that they said.” We all connect!

Now, if you tell somebody, “Don’t you dare tell someone what I’m about to tell you that Andrea told me,” you know the first thing they’re going to do is turn around and call someone else to pass it along. Unless they are too busy with something else on their mind.

That’s exactly what happens when we have heaven on our minds. When we are busy reading our Bible, praying to God for more of Him, worshiping God with others regularly, and serving others in the name of Jesus to meet the needs of a desperate world, we truly will not have time to be caught up in the petty arguments or distractions that drag life down.

More than that, we will be prepared for the storms of life when they come. They always come. But when we have our spiritual and emotional anchor in place, they will not throw us off course. With heaven on our minds, we will have the right perspective for every day of our lives.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).”