The perception of the eye is always different depending on who you’re asking. Everyone has a choice on how to react to the situations around them.

Here’s a common life example:

Rebecca fell in love and got married years ago and now has 3 beautiful children she is raising on her own. In order to provide her family with a good life she works 2 part-time jobs, full-time hours are hard to come by where she lives. Rebecca is the kind of Mom that wants to come home from work and do nothing but spend time with her kids. However, clothes are dirty, dinner needs to be made and dishes need to be done. In her eyes her life seems to be in a disarray. Rebecca feels guilty that she doesn’t get to spend more time with her kids, guilty that she seems to be punishing the kids more than she plays with them, guilty because she can’t afford to take them out to a nice meal at a sit-down restaurant or buy them the latest technology. From her inside point of view Rebecca feels like she is failing her kids and she is fed up with the life she leads and wants something better for her kids.

It’s easy to sympathize with a circumstance like this. But, let’s step out of Rebecca’s shoes for a minute so we can see a larger picture. From the outside I see a woman who is working hard to provide for 3 kids alone. You can see by watching her how much she loves her kids, and finds it important for them to have clean clothes, warm food in their tummies and be well-behaved. She has her priorities straight and isn’t wasteful with her finances. From the outside you can hear people saying, “Wow, Rebecca is a great Mom, I don’t know how she does it.”.

Who you are when nobody is watching (or when you don’t care who’s watching) is what truly defines you. There are so many single moms and dads out there trying their best to give their families a good life.

In reality, the people that struggle the most have more appreciation for the things they earn. Which can be re-illiterated as: Some of the best people you meet have seen some of the biggest hardships.

While Rebecca is strong and independent she is also weak, she doesn’t see that her kids are learning about life through her..the things that are truly important. On the other side of the street there is a mother with 3 kids who goes out and drinks every weekend to drown out her problems.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
It's not what you do, it's how you do it
It's not what you see, it's how you look at it.
It's not how your life is, it's how you live it.
- Sue Fitzmaurice -