Dealing with Change

Change. This is a word I don’t think anyone wants to hear unless it involves clothes. Why does this seem to be the case? Because change is scary. Deathly frightening. Change usually includes doing something outside of one’s comfort zone, leaving something that is familiar and comfortable. Sara and I are going to have change thrown in our faces at the end of this week. The kind of change that is really, really hard; Sara will be moving.

When I was little, moving was something new and exciting. But now that I’m older, it is something I dread. One of my biggest fears is that I’ll have to move somewhere far away; so far that I will have to give up everything that I Iove to do, say goodbye to all of my friends and never see them again. Sara will be moving to South Africa for over three years. By the time she gets back, we’ll be all grown up and very different. Though knowing that she’s coming back makes things easier, it is still so hard. Dealing with change is probably one of the hardest things to do. It would be so much easier to shut my mind to it an pretend like I don’t care. I do care, however, and ignoring emotions rather than dealing with them is very unhealthy. One thing that I do to deal with change is to talk to God about what’s bothering me, why I am not embracing the change. I even try to thank God for the change... because I know that somehow, someday I will look back on it and see that whatever I didn’t want to happen at the time ended up being the best thing that happened to me. Or it ended up making me a better person anyway.

Another thing I do is talk to other people about it. It is very important to have people in your life who you can talk to about almost anything. I have a few such people in my life like my mom and two really close friends. I am so thankful for these people.

A couple of my favorite verses in the Bible are my favorites because they helped me through some change or other. Whenever I’m having a rough time, I reread those verses or think about them if I have them memorized. One of my favorites in Joshua 1:9 which says: “This is my command: be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” This applies to just about everything in life. No matter what happens, remember to be strong and courageous - God didn’t just “highly recommend” it he commanded it. In whatever you do, wherever you go, remember that he is with you. Jesus is all we need.