Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. ~John 8:32

Tag Archives: change


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The Season Of Change

Then God said, “Let light appear in the sky to separate the day from night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years.” Genesis 1:14

I love the seasons’ changes. I love the anticipation of something new. It never fails; as soon as I get comfortable with one season, I become discontent and am ready for the next one. I like to think that is one of the reasons God gave us the ever-changing seasons; He knows His creation and knows that we are in need of constant change and transition. “As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.” Genesis 8:22.

I love all four seasons equally and what each one represents. In the winter, I love oversized sweaters and crockpots full of yummy soups, and I appreciate the nakedness of the earth around me, preparing itself against the elements.

During the winter, I find myself dreaming of the hot summer sun and swimming in the ocean. It represents a time of leisure and enjoyment.

Fall and spring are such important seasons of the year. Fall time brings coolness to the warm air, beauty painted upon our trees and the hustle and bustle of the back-to-school grind. It’s a transition from a break to business in our lives, but more, it’s a representation of a season of preparation. Our earth goes into a dormant state.

All the while, spring is being prepared behind the leafless trees and beneath the frozen ground, “The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of the turtledoves fills the air.” Song of Songs 2:12. It’s a rebirthing of life, and before life there is emptiness, darkness. “Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’” Genesis 1:3.

Nature reflects creation produced by a God who represents love and care. As each season was brought into thought and each creature given life, the building of that love for His creation grew and grew until it peaked and human beings were born from His love and His mind. It’s a symphony, a procession of love building upon the next carefully thought up wonder and the pinnacle is man and woman.

All of creation reflects the same running themes: Life never stops moving, changing, transitioning; life itself has seasons which are both physical and spiritual; and the underlying purpose of the steadiness of change is growth.

I am in a perpetual state of spring at the moment and have been for a few years now. I have been giving birth and rearing up new life for 12 years, and I am on the precipice of delivering my fourth child. Now more than ever, I am aware of the significance that the seasons of life hold.

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The parallelisms displayed between nature and the life that we have been given reveals a much deeper meaning hidden within our daily lives. With insight and awareness of who our God is, we can begin to see the purpose of all that has been given—our lives, children, jobs, seasons—even time—it’s all a gift. Much of the gift is simply for us to savor, like summertime and enjoying the fruits of our labor. There are also parts of this gift that are necessary for growth, which often bring discomfort like the cold winters and the pain of child rearing.

But with the new season just upon the horizon, the seasons we may find ourselves in leave just as quickly as they came. As I sit here with my belly full of baby, I am fully aware of the season of life that I am experiencing. Most days I take for granted the time with my little ones, wondering when the daily routines that seem endless will, in fact, ever end. But, I remind myself that there will be a time, sooner rather than later, that I will try to reach far into my memories for the sweet sounds of my baby’s coos and the laughter of my daughters’ play.

As each season continues to rotate the year, and the years unfold into many years, I am going to continue to move through the springs, summers, falls, and winters of life with a mindful eye, a willingness to be open to experience all that God’s hands have in store for my life.


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Three Reasons Not to Give Your Husband a Makeover

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2, NKJV)

bath-small-reducedDon’t you love watching shows where they do a total makeover of an old house? It’s fun to imagine what could be done with your own house, too. It’s not quite so satisfying or effective, though, when you try a makeover of your spouse.

Have there been times in your marriage when you felt you had to change your husband or die trying? How did that work out for you?

Have you perhaps tried anger, belittling, whining, temper tantrums, seduction? All those forms of manipulation may produce short term results, but at what cost?

If you think you’re being subtle in your attempts to make your spouse over into the perfect “Prince Charming,” you are definitely mistaken. Even if he doesn’t consciously acknowledge your disappointment with who he is (which is what motivated you to try to change him in the first place), he knows, and it definitely harms your relationship. It’s very difficult to have a good relationship with anyone if you believe it’s your job in life to change that person.

There have certainly been times in our forty-six years of marriage that I’ve felt my goal in life was to change my husband.  When that didn’t work out to my satisfaction (which, of course, was always the case), I’ve had pity parties, grumbling sessions, counseling sessions; I’ve experienced depression, anger, resentment, fear — you name it, I’ve felt it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think Sam and I have a pretty good relationship. But sometimes we could both use a good makeover. What God has finally taught me to ask myself is this: “Who really needs the makeover here?”

Whenever my focus in life is to make someone else do or be what I want, I have to ask myself, “Who really needs changing here?” Making my husband over is not my job. Actually, even making myself over isn’t my job. My job is simply to submit to God and let him continue to mold me into the image of His Son.

frog-prince-334970 reducedI can’t be who He designed me to be if I keep holding on to who I want to become or what I want to do. And if I keep trying to use the “Prince Charming” template to re-do my spouse, I’m simply denying that God can do a far better makeover of him than I could ever imagine. I’m convinced I’d do a miserable job of it, anyway.

As I’ve finally learned through the Eight Principles of Celebrate Recovery, God hasn’t yet made me the Queen of the Universe, and He has no intention of doing so. Changing people is not my job. God is God and I’m not!

Actually, I’m deeply grateful that I’m not responsible for changing anyone, including myself. Let me paraphrase Paul in Romans 7:14-19, “what I want and intend to do, I don’t do at all, and what I don’t want to do is exactly what I end up doing.” It simply doesn’t work when I try to do a makeover of anyone.

So, what are the three reasons not to give your spouse a makeover?

Reason #1: It’s not your job — God is God and you’re not.

Reason #2: You’d do a lousy job of it, anyway, and probably make matters even worse.

Reason #3: God wants you to learn to submit to His will, and you can’t do that if your focus is on what someone else should do or be.

This week, let’s ask God to help us lose our desire to do a makeover of anyone else. Instead, let’s ask him to give us the makeover he describes in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (NKJV)