The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

If I asked you to tell me what your perfect day would look like, I would get different responses from across the spectrum. One day over the weekend took on the look of a different day, not through my own personal lenses, but through the eyes of another.

We started the day cleaning house. I know, I know, nobody’s perfect day starts that way, but it did. Sweeping, mopping, dishes and bathrooms consumed the first few hours of the day, making things just right for our valued visitors coming soon. Then a quick break for a little reading when the three young men showed up for their play date with us, parents as chauffeurs.

The youngest of only seven weeks and the two slightly older siblings came prepared for almost anything. We both shared cuddle times with the baby, and conversations started with the two older boys as we sat and watched Sonic the Hedgehog and munched snacks. Conversation about cats, cartoons and snowmen turned the morning into a cherished moment. It was a great beginning to the day.

Moments after the young ones returned to their parents, we felt a nap coming on, but that was not to happen. A young couple we knew had just had a baby and was in the hospital in Spokane. To make matters worse, their only car had broken down. Oh, it gets worse. They stayed in a hotel near the hospital; one evening the father was taking breast milk to the hospital for the baby and was robbed just outside the hospital entrance, losing all their money.

Well, right before we napped, God put them on our hearts and we found ourselves on the road. We took them to dinner; the conversation was great and we could not be prouder of these young adults.

As we traveled home, we had a stop to make. A couple here in Coulee, going through some difficult times, had needed an item, and we just happened to stumble across one. So we were going to deliver it before going home. When we stopped, our timing seemed perfect. They desperately needed some items from the store. So we delivered that stuff too. Then we went home, exhausted but with smiles.

As you’re reading this, you may have assumed that my day was the perfect day. Now let’s look at this through different lenses. The parents of three boys, going on a date for the first time since the oldest boy was born. The new parents, scared and alone in the big city, knowing someone does care and the struggling family back here in the Coulee, praying for some help and we arrive at their front door. Sometimes we try and build a perfect day around ourselves. That will never work most of the time. But if we look at the needs of others and adapt our lives so we can love on people, sometimes something miraculous happens.

I challenge you to look at things through others’ eyes. Find ways to lift our community members up. Let a love of others develop our way of thinking, so that we care less about how our day looks and more of how can we help these people that desperately need assistance. If we take off our worldly glasses and put on the spectacles of God, we see things a little differently; OK, a lot differently. We see our neighbors as brothers and sisters, and that changes the perspective. I’m just saying.