As someone who went from being a career-minded woman to a stay-at-home mom, I understood this meme on so many levels!  I just had to laugh. Making the switch from working woman to stay-at-home mom was the biggest change I have ever had in my life!  And believe me, that says a lot considering I’ve had life-altering surgeries, lived in the Middle East, traveled all over, and haven’t lived in a single place longer than 20 months since 2006!  Although I never put down or thought less of anyone for being a stay-at-home parent, and I regularly hung out with them because they were my friends, I never really understood what they go through or how they look at life until I became that person.  Knowing, is not the same as experiencing! So I can truly look at this meme and laugh because I was the career woman who didn’t understand.  I can laugh because I am now the stay-at-home mom who understands that others don’t understand.  And I can laugh because I understand all the feelings that parents now have because they are forced to stay-at-home.  And I am not laughing AT anyone, I am laughing WITH everyone.  In times like these, it is good to have a laugh at the crazy in our lives. 

And that is what we are going to discuss today, the crazy.  Often we have big life changes.  These aren’t things we generally ask for, but things that force us to alter the way we live.  Periodically, definitely not often, things will happen that effect a big group of people.  Things like a pandemic or a world war.  This pandemic forced us all to rethink how we live life.  And whether we like it or not, it will likely change how we live life in the future.  The protests have challenged the way we look at our nation.  It remains to be seen what lasting changes (good or bad) will come of this. Businesses going out of business shows us the struggles of others and allows us to appreciate the services they offer. But the beauty of these trials are that we are able to think about life differently.  It gives us the opportunity to see life in a different light, to experience life through another person’s circumstances, and to be shown what life is like for others.   Our priorities shift and we are shown the things that we take for granted. And if we seize the opportunity, it can be a time that we allow God to make big changes in us. 

Big life changes challenge us.  It is often in these times that God uses things to grow us both in character and in our faith.   


More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 ESV
 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4 ESV

This isn’t to dismiss the fact that life changes are hard. They are challenging.  They bring us to the brink of what we think we can endure. But if we choose to rely on the Lord, and we endure by doing our best to follow Him, we will come out of it being stronger is character, having a faith that is deeper, and a relationship with God that is closer. 

I can assuredly say these things because 1) the Bible states it, and 2) because I have lived this many times over.  The time I tried to do it on my own did not turn out well and I still suffer some of the consequences to this day.  It only took one time for me to realize the folly of my ways. The other times, God has grown me in more ways than I could’ve imagined.  He has turned all of my challenging times to my good, even the time I did not rely on him. Those challenges have refined me, sloughing away impurities in me that I didn’t even know I had.  Those challenges have prepared me for the things I face today and the things that will come my way.  

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 ESV


What challenges/changes are you facing today?

How have these challenges/changes altered the way you view life?

Have your priorities changed?

What things do you appreciate more, now that you are being challenged?

Take some time to pray, asking for help to endure and thanking God for the things he will use for your good. 


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Meme pictures derived from social media and shared under Fair Use Copyright Law


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