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.