I was furious with my husband. It was the sputtering kind of anger that (fortunately) made it impossible to put feelings into words. As I stormed out to burn off my adrenaline with a bracing walk, a Scripture verse popped into my head. “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).
Hmmph! I thought, Well that’s obvious! The odds that God would be thinking what I was thinking about my spouse were exactly zero.
I strode down the street at a vigorous pace. By the time I’d walked two miles my head was notably clearer.
The Bible verse came back to me. “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways.” I wondered why this particular passage was on my mind. I asked God to tell me.
Not coincidentally, it then occurred to me that if God could look at the upsetting situation from another perspective, so could I.
I sighed, and asked Him to point me in the right direction. As I replayed the sequence of events with a more open mind, my perspective slowly shifted. It was clear part of my anger arose from how my own fears and expectations played into the situation. I began—or at least tried to begin—to see my husband’s actions from a viewpoint of love and compassion. It was possible.
I turned around to go home. Without all that anger keeping me warm, the freezing air suddenly felt cold. Home seemed like a good place to be.
