Change.
Each year as the season of fall approaches, many families enter into a time involving lots of change: parents are sending their children back to school. Children are beginning a brand new year of school full of possibilities — new schedules, classrooms, teachers, friendships, the list goes on. Of course parents aren’t forgotten either; we have to help our children adjust at the same time of dealing with all the new stuff ourselves.
For many people, change is challenging. It can be a struggle to begin anew. Especially when changes occur that we did not see coming or ones that we may not have felt quite prepared for. However, change can also be exciting and even welcomed at times, particularly when we are in a rut or the days feel monotonous.
God tells us several times in the Bible to trust in him and his plan. He is trying to communicate to us that everything will be fine and we will be taken care of. In knowing that, we should always trust in him and not worry or resist the changes he is making. The change is obviously happening for a reason, even if we do not understand it in the present moment. The hard part is foregoing our human desires and instead having whole-hearted trust in God.
Most of the time change is tough because we do not understand at the time what God’s plan is and why his plan is playing out a different way than “we” had planned. We all know change is inevitable; changes are occurring every second of every day all around the world to each and every one of us.
Maybe the reasons are beyond our human capacity to understand, or maybe the timing just is not quite right for the reason to be known. If we think back, I am sure all of us can remember a time when something didn’t go as “we” planned, but ended up better in the end. That is God’s plan at work in each of our lives.
Whatever we do on this earth, God says he will always be with us. When God transforms something in our lives, he is also there to help us with three very important steps of the change his plan is entailing.
The first step God takes with us during change is to direct us out of the old, a jump-start to something new. The next step God helps us with in change is to guide us, a helping hand to pull us through the transition. And the last step God does is to help us accept the change, the calm after the storm where we can settle in and permanently adjust.
God is there to walk with us through each of the three steps. Yes, the process is challenging because we try to resist change instead of embrace it. As humans, we get stuck in our ways and struggle to find a way to make transitions easier. If we trust in God’s plan when it comes to change in our lives, he will be there to direct us, guide us and lead us onward to accept change. I pray that we can all embrace the changes that come with this upcoming fall season.
Melanie Sextro is a military wife and mother to two sweet boys. She is a member of St. Patrick Parish in Iowa City.
