My dog Peanut is one of the most skittish dogs I know. Every time something is different than how it is supposed to be, he freaks out. Simply put, he does NOT do well with change AT ALL. If we move the play house outside to a different area, he won't even want to go outside because something isn't right. Yep- that's my dog.
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| My dog Peanut |
And like my dog, I don't do well with change either. I don't shake, like he does when something has been changed, but I still don't like it. OK and I may shake a little bit on the inside, but that's perfectly normal right? Someone please reassure me here. Here's the thing: most people don't like change and see it as a bad thing. However, change can be good. Take me for instance: if you look at a picture of me when I graduated high school and then another picture of me now (about 5 years later) I look pretty much the same. I haven't changed much on the outside. But if you were able to look on the inside into my soul, you would see a lot of change.
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| Me- June 2009 |
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| Me- June 2013 |
In those 5 years I have left home, left everything I knew and went somewhere unfamiliar and new. I traveled to North Carolina for school where I didn't know anyone. I had to find a new church home all by myself and it was scary at times. I was attending a new school, at a new town, going to a new church and I knew absolutely no one. At times, I thought I was going to die. I thought "This is way too hard...I should just go home." Maybe I exaggerated a bit as I tend to do at times, but it sure seemed like the end of my world at the time. It was really hard, but you know what? I got through it and it made me stronger. Me, who hates change, had to undergo a whole lot of change in a short amount of time and learn how to deal with it. It wasn't easy, but I did it. I hit a lot of rough spots, got really homesick and would cry myself to sleep. This was all a part of me learning to deal with the change. I didn't do so well at first, but I grew so much during this time. I found a new church home in time, made friends and started learning my way around in North Carolina. I only got lost a few times (Praise God for GPS! HA!). I was transformed from the inside out through this time in my life and it did me a lot of good. For one, it made me really learn how to rely on God for ALL I need. My parents and hometown couldn't be a crutch for me to use anymore. I had to rely on God- He was all I had and He's all I needed. Huge lesson I learned. I had to learn to trust not just God, but other people...new people. I also learned you can't trust everyone just because they go to a Christian school. This resulted in me getting some of my things stolen from me by my roommate. I think God was trying to show me something. I tend to be a little too open with people and I slowly learned, I couldn't do that. I had to learn how to discern when to open up to someone and when to keep silent. I didn't have my parents or other adults there telling me which people to share with and which ones not to. I had to figure it out for myself and thank the Lord He was there to help me. I couldn't have done it without Him. I once hated change, but I am now learning to embrace it as God brings it across my path. I still have a hard time with some changes, but I am getting there. It's a learning process and I think I will be learning until I die. So looking at a picture of me fresh out of high school and a recent picture of me I look pretty much the same, but I know I'm not. If you look closely, my eyes look different. The girl out of high school was naive and a bit immature. The woman I see now has knowledge shining out of her eyes that life can be tough. She looks stronger and I know she will only get stronger as God continues to grow her.
So next time you face some big change in your life, don't cringe or try to run away from it. First of all, that's futile since usually the change will take place no matter what you do and usually needs to take place. Remember that you will become stronger through the change and the storms of life. In Isaiah 48:10 God says, "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." He is transforming you from the inside out with the refiner's fire so you may be pure as gold. Don't fight the change- embrace it and see what God is going to teach you through it! Change can be a good thing.
