Your blog Viewpoint, Perspective, and the Journey of Healing: How God heals the lens through which we see ourselves, others, and Him

Viewpoint, Perspective, and the Journey of Healing

How God heals the lens through which we see ourselves, others, and Him

As I reread my journal from that rainy season, I noticed something important: I am still learning to fully appreciate the change God has been making in my viewpoint and perspective. By reminding me of His character, it changed what I focused on and how I interpreted what I was experiencing. This realization left me wondering how deeply intertwined our viewpoints, perspectives, and the journey of healing truly are.

Scripture

"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. I will rebuild you, and you shall be rebuilt, O daughter of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:3

Viewpoint and Perspective

Many of us can remember exactly where we were when something exciting or devastating occurred.

For example, I was supervising children on the preschool playground when I first heard whispers about the events of September 11, 2001. I had to wait until I returned home to learn the full story. During that same time, one of our parents was in the hospital giving birth to her daughter.

Those are different viewpoints.

We were all living through the same historical event, yet each of us experienced it from a different position. Our location, role, and circumstances were different.

To bring it even closer to home, in 2018 I was sitting at my kitchen table, two hours away, when I received a phone call that my mother had suffered a heart attack and had been taken to the hospital.

At that moment, I occupied several viewpoints simultaneously. I was a daughter. I was the middle of three children. I deeply loved my mother, although we had never enjoyed a close relationship. Furthermore, I was also a mother myself.

These describe my viewpoint—the position from which I experienced a life-changing event.

But the viewpoint is only the beginning.

From that viewpoint, we immediately begin assigning meaning to what has happened. That interpretation is what we call perspective.

Perspective is shaped by many influences, including our experiences, relationships, culture, education, beliefs, disappointments, successes, and even trauma.

Our viewpoint is the place from which we observe life—our circumstances, experiences, and position. Our perspective is the understanding or interpretation we develop from that viewpoint.

Two people can experience the same event and arrive at completely different perspectives because each person interprets it through a different lens.

Perspective is incredibly important because our minds naturally develop familiar pathways for interpreting life. Like traveling a well-worn road, we often move from observation to interpretation in a matter of seconds, without even realizing it.

Most of the time, this process serves us well.

But what happens when the road itself has been damaged?

What happens when repeated disappointment, rejection, abuse, grief, betrayal, or injustice begin shaping the way we interpret not only life, but also ourselves, other people, and even God?

What happens when the lens through which we see the world becomes warped?

The events before us may be new, but our interpretation is often familiar. We begin responding to today's circumstances through yesterday's wounds. Without realizing it, we replay the same story—not because every situation is the same, but because the lens through which we interpret them has become distorted.

This is where healing begins.

Healing is not simply about changing our circumstances. More often, it is about allowing God to heal the lens through which we see ourselves, others, and Him.

As He does, our viewpoint may remain the same, but our perspective begins to change. It is imperative that we understand this process.

I'd like to share one example from my own life.

My Story

My mother carried wounds long before I was born.

As a teen, she was sent to live with her father, whom she had not seen in sixteen years. She believed she was finally going to build a relationship with him. Instead, she discovered that she had been brought there to care for her two younger siblings. That disappointment was added to earlier experiences of abandonment and grief of not knowing her biological mother.

By the age of twenty-seven, she had several children, was living in poverty, and eventually became trapped in alcoholism and later in drug addiction. Little by little, those addictions cost her custody of her three remaining children.

Each of my siblings experienced our mother differently because each of us occupied a different viewpoint. Those viewpoints shaped the perspectives we carried into adulthood.

My Viewpoint

I loved my mother deeply.

I never saw her as a bad person or unfit mother. I saw her through eyes of admiration, love, and confusion. She was well loved throughout our community, yet my personal experience of her was often one of rejection, emotional distance, neglect, and manipulation.

As a little girl, I quietly wondered,

"What is wrong with me?

Why doesn't my own mother love me?"

Those questions slowly became part of the story I believed about myself.

Believing I was unloved stealthily influenced many of my later decisions, including marrying someone who continued that familiar pattern of rejection and emotional abuse.

Years later, after my mother's death and divorce, I entered counseling to begin the process of putting my life back together. That was the plan. But the Lord had another plan.

As I answered my counselor's questions, my mother's story kept resurfacing. One day he asked me a question I have never forgotten. "Do you look like your mother?" I smiled and answered, "Yes." People in the community often stopped me and asked if Ruby was my mother.

Then he gently offered a perspective I had never considered.

He suggested that perhaps my mother was not rejecting me as much as she was responding to the unresolved pain and memories reflected back to her whenever she looked at me. He offered me reassurance that it was not personal.

I often left counseling angry. Thinking and saying, "It was personal,"

"It happened to me."

But as counseling continued, the Lord began doing something much deeper than helping me process a divorce.

He began repairing the foundation through which I had interpreted this area of life.

As I learned more about grief, trauma, addiction, and my mother's own story, I slowly began to see a picture of her I had never seen before. I could finally see the good, the bad, and the ugly s about my mother and still have compassion for her.

I came to understand that my mother's choices had deeply wounded me, but they had also flowed from wounds she herself had never fully healed. And indeed, it was not personal.

That understanding did not excuse the pain, erase the consequences. But it made forgiveness possible.

Through Christ's help, wise counseling, and a growing understanding of my mother's life, I was able to forgive her—even though she was no longer here.

My viewpoint broadened to recognize the impact of trauma, and my perspective changed.

The Lord replaced distortion with truth.

Where I once believed I was unloved and unwanted, He began showing me that I had always been deeply loved by Him.

Today, I love my mother and have forgiven her. And by God's grace, I have learned to love myself as He created me to be, with the healed and healing journey continuing.

Conclusion

Looking back, I can now see that the Lord has been drawing me all along—even in seasons when I could not recognize His hand. Through His lovingkindness, He led me toward healing, revealing unseen wounds, challenging distorted beliefs, and gently rebuilding what had been broken.

"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built..."
— Jeremiah 31:3–4 (KJV)

My past did not change, but my perspective (how I interpreted the facts) did change. As God rebuilt my understanding of who He is, He also began transforming how I saw myself, my experiences with my mother, and His faithfulness throughout my journey.

Reflection

Healing is rarely instantaneous. More often, it is a process of allowing ourselves to be drawn by the Lord and rebuilt by His loving hands. As He rebuilds us, He gently exposes the perspectives that pain, trauma, and misinformation have shaped and replaces them with the truth of His Word.

My prayer is not simply that our circumstances would change, but that we would allow God to continue His work of rebuilding us until our hearts and perspectives increasingly reflect His truth.

Questions for Reflection

• How has understanding the difference between viewpoint and perspective helped you think differently about your own experiences? Why do you believe that distinction matters?

• Reflect on Jeremiah 31:3–4. In what ways have you seen God's lovingkindness drawing you—even in seasons when you didn't recognize His hand?

• Looking at your life through your current viewpoint and perspective, what area do you sense the Lord wants to rebuild?

• As God continues His work of rebuilding, what perspective might He be inviting you to exchange for the truth of His Word?

Until next time, may the Lord continue to bless and keep you on the journey of -Healed & Healing .

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