Change is scary.  Sometimes it’s exciting, often it can be bittersweet but usually scary is one of the bigger components.  Unless we are changing our cologne scent, we usually don’t do it without our feet dragging and our fingernails dug into the carpet.  Of course, I have been known to struggle with a change of cologne scents.  There are so many to choose from!  Ok, off that rabbit trail and back on the main road.  The Bible talks alot about change.  Restoration is the theme that runs through the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

In Part I of this post, I shared how I sought godly counsel to help me make some necessary changes emotionally.  I am also a member of Weight Watchers.  It would be great if I could say that I was successful my very first try at this eating plan but, this was my second time around with them.  I have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight more times than I can count.  Like a dear old friend, James, said once, “I have lost a 1000 lbs over my life time!”  An exaggeration for both of us but it sure feels that way!  If I listed every “diet” that I have been on some of you would be surprised and others of you would say “been there, done that”.  Emotionally, there are issues I continue to struggle with.  Physically, I am in better health than I have been in years.  I would say that seeking help staying free has been an important step for me.

In “The Word For You Today”, the author has several great quotes on change.  “Usually we don’t change until the pain of staying the same becomes unbearable.  For most of us, knowledge is not the bridge to growth-pain is.”  Knowledge has not been the catalyst for change in me.  I “knew” what needed to be done.  Yep, pain did it!  Emotional pain and physical pain.  It’s amazing how being miserable could motivate me.

Step Two:   deciding to change.  In Romans 12:2, the apostle Paul tells us to “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”  “Let God” – hmmm, active participation.  I must participate.  I must decide, choose, act and I must decide, choose, act daily.  Even when I didn’t want to, when it was inconvenient, when it seemed easier to use old behaviors, when I was pressed, pushed, tired or hungry.  Even when those I love played on my weaknesses.  I must decide!! Please don’t misunderstand me.  Making lasting changes in my life has been one of hardest things I have ever done.  The second quote from “The Word For You Today” says, “Change usually comes when it hurts so much that you have to change, when you learn so much that you want to change, and when you receive so much that you welcome change.”

Here I am today.   Just deciding every day.  Standing firm, and not letting myself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1)  I have come to realize that there are some issues and behaviors that I will have to work on daily to keep submitted God.   I wish that I could say that it was easier.  I am to the place now that “I have learned so much that I want to change and I have received so much that I welcome change”.  When I fall, I get up, dust myself off and start again (Proverbs 24:16).

Has the pain of staying the same become unbearable?  You can change.  I am.  Notice I didn’t say I did.  I am a work in progress.  My dear husband has a Sammy Kershaw song that he quotes often.  Kind of a mantra for his life and I think I will borrow it here.  “I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get, but I’m better than I used to be”.

Until we visit again…

Live blessed,
Carmen