My eight year old was looking for opportunities to make some money; so, I told him he could fold the two baskets of towels in the laundry room. He enthusiastically agreed. Before he left the room, I reminded him of how we fold them; so, they would fit nicely on the shelves… “Remember to fold them end to end, end to end again, then, fold over twice.” (similar to many hotel styles) He skipped out of the room, excited about the bit of cash that would soon be lining his pocket. I was in the middle of setting up my new blog, and I knew it would be good to go in and supervise, or at least “check his work;” however, I casually thought, “Well, he’s done it before. It’ll be fine; I’m sure.”  A little while later, he moved onto something else, and I walked downstairs to fix dinner..the loads of laundry forgotten for the evening. The next morning, I entered the laundry room to finish the (thought to be) forgotten pile of towels. To my surprise, all the bath and beach towels were stacked and folded, just as I had instructed my son to do…well, each one was definitely folded and stacked; however, the stack wasn’t quite what I had expected (See pics!). You see, my sweet little boy had folded each towel “end to end (2x) and then tri-folded;” yet, depending on where you start the very first fold, this will determine how the towels will look when you are finished…
This caused me to start thinking about how we all have so many different perspectives and expectations.  Together, we all travel this road called life. Some places are rocky; some are smooth. There are mountain top experiences, and there are valleys. We will all encounter days of sunshine, days of lightning and rain and even days of scorching heat or a refreshing mist. Yet, where we end up in this journey will ultimately depend upon our perspective of the events that occur. If we face the journey with hope of our eternal destination; the days don’t seem so long, and the seasons seem more like a passing summer shower rather than a hopeless natural disaster. Having a positive outlook on life doesn’t mean we have to be blind to reality, painting a mask of imagination and fantasy. It simply means we hold onto hope that life is more than what we encounter down here.
Life is more than compact calendars, exploited agendas, failed achievements and achieved failures. Life is more than petty arguments, offenses and conflicts. Life is all about the moments when we truly live, when we actually impact the lives around us. It is about the destination we have in Christ, and how many people reach that destination with us. It’s about reaching out to someone more in need than we are. It’s about providing the comfort or the encouraging word to help our fellow man just make it through another day. Life is about more than what we see, and, often, more than what we care to take notice. Life is all about perspective. If we have the right perspective of things, the world will take on a whole different view in our eyes. With this new “mini revelation,” I looked differently at that stack of bath and beach towels. They were no longer seen as a mismatched, disheveled stack of towels that I would desperately need to refold, but rather, a stack of creatively corrugated towels which were folded by my precious, entrepreneur son whom I will only have around for another few short years! … It’s always great to see things with a new perspective.