Life has changed a lot for me in the last six months.
I got married.
I became an empty-nesting parent.
I became a step parent.
I am watching my parents make tough decisions about their final years.
I haven't been going to my home church every week.
I no longer write code at my job on a day-to-day basis. (this seems inconsequential compared to the others, but since I'm at work most of the day during the week, it's pretty huge)
In all of these life changes, God is at the center. And that is a tremendous comfort. But, it's also a game-changer in what I do with these changes.
In my first marriage, I was not a believer of Jesus for the majority of the time. In my second marriage, it's been part of who we are as a couple. God is there, at the center. Yes, my husband's personality is diametrically different from my ex-husband. Yes, I'm twenty-plus years older. But what does it really mean to be a believer in marriage versus not being a believer?
And what does it mean to be a parent who believes in Jesus versus being a parent without Jesus?
What does it look like when there are life-altering health issues for your parents as loved ones in this new world?
What does it mean when your day-to-day job changes?
Each of these questions deserves its own answer. It's not like I'm choosing to eat cereal every day for breakfast instead of eating a granola bar. The questions point to big events. But I think what we do in our daily lives should look different as believers for both big and small changes.
I have also learned is that what I do with each of these life changes looks different in spite of myself. My tendency in life is to have a "woe-is-me" attitude about change, or to be self-centered and want to show everyone that I'm pretty awesome for handling it all well (maybe to thoughtfully write about it in a blog), or to even not talk about changes but instead let others do the talking and let them tell me about their changes first and then quietly bring up an analogy in their change versus mine.
Thankfully, God is bigger than me and has changed me in ways I didn't even realize. More to come.
I became an empty-nesting parent.
I became a step parent.
I am watching my parents make tough decisions about their final years.
I haven't been going to my home church every week.
I no longer write code at my job on a day-to-day basis. (this seems inconsequential compared to the others, but since I'm at work most of the day during the week, it's pretty huge)
In all of these life changes, God is at the center. And that is a tremendous comfort. But, it's also a game-changer in what I do with these changes.
In my first marriage, I was not a believer of Jesus for the majority of the time. In my second marriage, it's been part of who we are as a couple. God is there, at the center. Yes, my husband's personality is diametrically different from my ex-husband. Yes, I'm twenty-plus years older. But what does it really mean to be a believer in marriage versus not being a believer?
And what does it mean to be a parent who believes in Jesus versus being a parent without Jesus?
What does it look like when there are life-altering health issues for your parents as loved ones in this new world?
What does it mean when your day-to-day job changes?
Each of these questions deserves its own answer. It's not like I'm choosing to eat cereal every day for breakfast instead of eating a granola bar. The questions point to big events. But I think what we do in our daily lives should look different as believers for both big and small changes.
I have also learned is that what I do with each of these life changes looks different in spite of myself. My tendency in life is to have a "woe-is-me" attitude about change, or to be self-centered and want to show everyone that I'm pretty awesome for handling it all well (maybe to thoughtfully write about it in a blog), or to even not talk about changes but instead let others do the talking and let them tell me about their changes first and then quietly bring up an analogy in their change versus mine.
Thankfully, God is bigger than me and has changed me in ways I didn't even realize. More to come.
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