Changes

First Day of School - September 2010

Last Day of School - May 2011

Look at how much my little boy has grown up in just a few, short months. These two little pictures take my breath away. It solidifies in my heart the truth that is written all over scripture - life is fleeting, we are but a mist that vanishes....

Only just several years ago I had this expectation of what my life would look like. I was hopeful that we would live in one place forever, contrary to anything I knew growing up. I thought the anti-nomadic lifestyle would mean that change rarely, if ever occurred, and comfort and ease of life were always at an all time high. And now we HAVE lived in the same place for five years and I can testify that change ALWAYS occurs. I may be fixed in one place (until July anyway!), but change is occurring all around me, faster than a pinwheel spins in hurricane like winds. These pictures of Blane growing faster than I can keep up, Dale's 60th birthday celebration yesterday, our impending move, friends who have moved away, lifestyle changes, income changes, employment changes, retirement, anniversaries - all of it is a constant reminder that my hope should not and cannot be in the things of this world. My expectations can't even lay here. But there is one thing that will never change. Scripture. I love the Word of God! Isn't it cool to think that the same scriptures that I am reading and studying today, will be the same, read the same today as when I am 90 and studying the same thing?! And God, HE is unchanging. Psalm 102:25 reminds me of that! The same God that formed Adam and Eve, who created the earth and the heavens, he's the same God who I yearn to know more. There is such comfort in knowing that my hope is in someone who is ever UN-changing! I cling to that!

And because of the change that is ever present this side of heaven, I have been burdened to pray in more specific ways for my kids' salvation. I have been praying that they never live with borrowed convictions - I have been begging that the Lord pursue their hearts in such a way that they each develop a faith and relationship with Jesus that is uniquely their own.

I pray that my hope is so secure in Jesus that I can learn to hold more loosely the things of this world. I pray that I can redeem my time, living as someone who is wise, and not unwise - because the days ARE evil. I pray that I can boldly go forth - even when change is eminent and uncomfortable.......