Change. And remain.

I love change.  LOVE it.  It makes life interesting.  When I was single I had these visions of being single for the rest of my life, and living in all kinds of different places.  Moving once a year to experience a different part of the country or the world.  I used to change my hair style (and color) ALL the time.

Then I got married.  Before I say anything else, let me say that I absolutely love my husband.  I absolutely love being married.  There.  However, being married has severely limited my ability to change things.  Yes, Dustin likes to change paint colors or the furniture setup in the living room.  But my hair?  He's not a fan.  Moving to a different, awesome place every 12 months?  Not a fan.  And why should he be?  I don't blame him.

Then came Jack.  And now I have to say this: I absolutely love Jack.  I'm so glad God planned him to join our family when He did (that's another story).  But with motherhood comes even more non-changing-ness. It seems like every day we get up at the same time, we eat the same foods, we play with the same toys.

But God is gracious.  Of course.  And in all the "we still live in Ft. Wayne...we still take walks around the same block every day...we still eat eggs and a banana for breakfast"-ness of this stage of life, things are changing.  While the temporary things may stay the same, the meaningful, eternal things are changing.

Jack is changing: obviously.  He's learning SO much right now, and it's been exciting to get to see the world through his eyes.  Just a bit.  He gets so excited to try and poop on the potty, or eat popcorn with a fork, or when he sees a letter T on a semi truck (when did he start identifying letters???).  Dustin is changing: he just started his second year of NP school.  He's learning how to do all this cool medical stuff.  He's working 2 part-time jobs and going to school full-time.  He's growing as a dad and and husband.

And I'm changing.  As a mom and a wife.  Hopefully I'm getting better at those things.  But most of all, God has been teaching me from His Word.  This week the main thing He showed me was to REMAIN.  I read about it in 1 John 2.  And that word REMAIN stuck out to me.  And I remembered it from another passage in John 15 where Jesus is talking about the vine and the branches.  Both passages say we are to remain in Him.  REMAIN.  Pretty much the opposite of CHANGE.  But that's what He's calling us to do.  Remain in Him.  And He will remain in us.  And here's the cool thing: He promises that if we remain, we will bear much fruit.  We will grow.  We will change.  We will inspire others to change.  And to remain.

So, while outwardly it may appear we are staying the same, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. We are changing.  We are remaining.  All at the same time.

The Mind of a Toddler Explained!

For about a month now, my son Jack has been calling his giraffe lovey-thing "Brush."  In his 21-month-old brain, somehow that was a fitting name for a giraffe.  For the past few weeks, Dustin and I have been trying to figure out where in the world he came up with the name Brush.  He loves brushing his teeth, and brushing his hair, and painting with a brush, but none of those activities includes a giraffe.

Then today I got my answer.  We were playing in the living room, and all of a sudden Jack pointed to the mantel and said "Brush!"  He was pointing to the wood-carved giraffes that Dustin bought in Africa several years ago.  The tails were facing us.  And I realized that a giraffe's tail looks a lot like a paintbrush.

I wonder what else he's been trying to tell us.

Stories

Well I've done it.  I've started a blog.  I always wanted to blog.  But I didn't think I had anything worth writing about.  Our life is very normal at the moment.  No one is sick or going through a trial.  We don't homeschool, and we're not in the adoption process (yet).  I'm not super crafty or great in the kitchen.  I'm not even really a great writer.  On the surface, I don't have anything interesting going on that people would want to read.

But in the normalcy, God is teaching me so many things.  I heard a speaker once say "Ask people what God is teaching them.  That doesn't get asked enough.  And share what God is teaching you."  So I started asking people what God's been teaching them.  And I've been so blessed by the answers to that question.  So I guess that's the purpose of this blog: to share what God is teaching me and my family, whether our life is full of interesting or full of normal.

"My comfort and my glory are shaken when I see that my life's not a story about me."  It's from a song called "Stay Humble" by Tyler James.  I first heard it during a very impressionable time in my life.  Since then, I've listened to that song hundreds of times.  And that line has always stuck with me.  It brings much-needed perspective.  Too many times I think my life is a story about me.  I try to make it about me.  But the truth is, it's not.  Not at all.  God is writing a story about Himself, and I get to be a part of it.  That's all.

So even though I'm in the midst of NORMAL, it's not my story anyway.  His story is always interesting.  And as He writes my life, and as I share it, I hope all my stories point to Him.  Whether they're filled with deep spiritual truth or they're about funny things that happen at the grocery store.  He's in all of it.  And I'm so thankful.