Welling up with tears, I began my apology to my daughter. Seems like I’d been doing that a lot lately. This time I had failed to order her graduation announcements.
What kind of mom am I?
My girl smiles at me as I blubber my confession. She reassures me: this is not an emergency. Tilting her head, she looks at me as if I’m from another planet. Not because I forgot, but because I’m crying. Who is this woman? I imagine her asking in her thoughts.
I know she must wonder about me these days.
Lately, I haven’t been recognizing myself either. The normally organized, rational, on-task woman can’t seem to keep it all together.
Maybe the forgetting isn’t so unintentional. Could this be my heart’s way of trying to put off the inevitable?
On my desk sits the form, the one I’ve procrastinated completing, requiring me to admit her age. She’s an adult now. How did that happen? My mind wonders, Will she still need me? Who am I now? What is my place? Change is hard.
I’m guessing that like me, you’ve either just come out of a season of change, are entering a season of change or are in the middle of change right now. It might not be a child graduating from high school. You might be returning to school, making a move or looking for a new job.
Change has a way of swirling in and around our lives. Just when we adjust, like a squirming toddler, life refuses to stay still. We finally think we’ve gotten control, when chaos erupts again. One activity stops while two are added. And whether we like the new that’s come, or wish we could run and hide, our feelings don’t change the inevitable.
Facing another change, and handling it well, requires character. Change requires traits I feel like I haven’t fully mastered and so I tend to think, I’m just not patient. I can’t be kind.
But maybe, just maybe, times of transition are God’s way of bringing the change I need. He just might be setting up this opportunity for me to grow into the woman He knows I can become.
I’m learning I can allow the pressure of transition to transform me. When I submit to the Holy Spirit during times of change, He can grow in me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Bible calls calls these traits the fruit of the Spirit.
Every day we are becoming something different. The question is, Who are we becoming? If we will be diligent and faithful to depend on Him during each season, we’ll see beauty grow in our lives.
As we lean into God, asking for strength through the peace or through the pain, He will make us into the women He’s intended for us to become: Women becoming God’s definition of beautiful.
This summer is a great time to invest in the life of a young woman and use Lynn Cowell’s book, Magnetic: Becoming the Girl He Wants, to study the fruit of the Spirit together!
Can you share with us a time when God used change to grow beauty in you?
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CLICK THIS LINK & CHECK OUT HOW YOU CAN HAVE A CHURCH HOSTED BETTER TOGETHER CONFERENCE
(As we are finalizing the details, we wanted to give you a peak at how you can have a BETTER TOGETHER Conference at your church!)
- What Do You Expect? - December 17, 2015
- The Best Time to Make Up Your Mind - November 12, 2015
- Mom – Never Give Up! - October 15, 2015
