What do YOU see in the clouds?

Lessons are learned everyday but this day it was from the clouds.

I wasn't there to hear this very enlightening dialog between my husband and 10-year old son, but Jeff related it to me after the fact. He recently posted about the conversation on his blog, so instead of rewriting it, I thought I would just share his words. You might even see your own children in this…

A few weeks ago, my kids and I were driving in the car and, as kids often do, they were looking at cloud formations and telling each other what shapes they saw. What was funny about this particular moment was a eureka experience from my son in which we all got to share a part. I have great kids, but just like so many families, there exist the typical sibling rivalries where our children will argue against one another incessantly [they've even been known to argue at length about what shapes they see in the clouds!].

The moment came when, as one child relayed what they saw and another their own vision, I was asked what I saw in a particular cloud. I don’t remember what I said, but it was something different than any of my children said they had seen. At that moment, my son pipes up and says, “You mean, people can see different things when looking at the same cloud?”

It dawned on me that, though still useless and annoying, all my children’s arguments about what could be seen in the clouds all came down to a matter of perspective. In my son’s limited viewpoint, everyone in the world should see the exact same thing that he did when looking at the clouds. I had to explain to him that, because of the way God made each of us with different imaginations and viewpoint, and that we’ve all had different experiences, we all see things a bit differently. I also had to explain that it was okay for one person to see a cloud one way, and for another to not only see it completely differently, but to not be able to see what another could see very clearly.

That day my son had a shift in his perspective, coming to realize that his way of viewing things was not necessarily the only way or the best way. I also had a perspective shifting experience, in that I learned that my son is still stuck in a very “me-centered” viewpoint of the world.

Lessons learned on perspective can open us up to realizing everything is not viewed as we view it. It can help with our understanding of others so look at the clouds and what do you see?