Changes Are Inevitable
Las Variaciones Son Inevitables
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Sunday, January 29, 2023
Although we expect children to change and grow, it still surprises us at times. [Photographer: skalekar1992. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
When I saw some friends with their adult son in a restaurant, I tilted my neck upward to greet their son as he towered over me.
I exclaimed, "I haven't seen you since you since you stood three feet above the ground!"
He laughed, squatted down, looked up, and asked in his deep voice, "Will this help?"
I shouldn't have been surprised because change is a sign of growth in children so that we should expect them to change. We can also expect changes in seasons and in nature. However, other changes may be more difficult to accept.
When my mother visited us and encountered our telephone with the punch buttons that needed to be turned on, it confused her. She missed her own phone with its dial tone that always sounded when she picked it up. She kept her phone until she entered a nursing facility. [Photographer: Mitch Schlater. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
Changes in our home environments, our neighborhoods, our relationships, our churches and our governments may be disconcerting at best.
In a magazine article, I read that one of the ways that stores get us to spend more money is through changing their floor plans and rearranging the placement of their products. When we become comfortable with the layout of the store, we tend to rush right past displays of certain products that the store wants to promote. However, when items that we need have been moved around, then we must spend time looking at other products while we search for what we want. The experience can be frustrating!
Similarly, the loss of time invested in our neighborhoods, our relationships, and our churches may make us resent change. However, things that don't change are not growing.
Many years ago, I met a woman who cared for children in her home while their mothers worked. All of the children returned to go home in the evening with their parents except one. His mother paid for her son to remain with the childcare lady all the time. That was because his mother could not care for her son since he was not growing as other children did. At five years old, he was unable to talk, walk, or relate to anyone. He still wore diapers, sat in a stroller, and behaved like a baby. His brain had not matured enough for him to accomplish the developmental tasks that children normally perform at that age.
The memory of that boy remains with me when I think of changes in the world around me. In the same way that we wouldn't want a child to remain a baby, we can't expect our neighborhoods, our families, or our churches to remain the same. If change does not take place, then decay sets in, and that's not the type of change we want to see.
Since change of one type or another is inevitable, we can only trust God to guide us through the changes that occur because some changes are confusing. A verse that I find helpful in such situations is Psalm 71:1. King David was speaking to the Lord when he wrote, "In thee, O Lord do I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion." (KJV)
It helps to know that King David wrote those words in his old age. From that perspective, many things were happening that he did not understand, but he asked the Lord for continued clarity of mind. And that is my prayer for you – that you may maintain clarity of mind amidst the changes that will inevitably come. I pray that you will accept those changes with grace and learn to ask, "God, what do You want me to learn from this?" because I can assure you that you will learn something!
BIBLE VERSE USED IN THIS POSTING
Psalm 71:1 — "In thee, O Lord do I put my trust; let me never be put to confusion." (KJV)
Salmos 71:1 — "En ti, oh Jehová, he esperado; No sea yo confuse para siempre. (Reina-Valera-Antigua)
Changes will continue to come. Look for them. [Photographer: Rita E. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com.]
