Have you ever heard that Patty Loveless song, How Can I Help You to Say Goodbye? {Warning–it’s a total tear-jerker.}

I caught it on the radio the other day after a long, long time and it just brought me to a complete stop in my tracks.

“Momma whispered softly, time will your pain. Life’s about change and nothing ever stays the same…”

I tend to fight change.

Well, that’s a mild way of putting it…tend to…seems to imply that occasionally I embraced change. That I don’t always fight it, hate it, deplore it. Just more often that not.  Tend to.

Since losing my parents brought the world as I know it to a screeching halt, flipped it on its axis, and spun it in an opposite rotation–I hate change. I fear change. Changing equals losing to me.

But that’s just not biblical.

And “the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) 

The Bible is full of change. Full. From Victors to Captives. From Winners to Losers to Winners. From Plenty to Poverty. From War to Peace to War. From Shepherd to King. From Heaven to Stable. From Earth to Death to Life Everlasting. Jesus changed the sick to the healthy, the dead to the living–sin washed away to holiness.

Not just change–transformation.

Dead in sin, alive in Christ.

For someone who cries every time her kids go up a shoe size, this is a lot to take in.

Thankfully the Lord is patient with me! He also knows me better than anyone ever has–except maybe my Momma. Ok, probably even better than that.

And He knows what I need to hear, to see, to ponder, to unlock me from that static fear and move forward, spiritually.

The Ladybug came home from school the other day and while we were filling chicken feeders was telling me that they had “the worse bible lesson ever, today.”

Oh really?

She said “Yeah, it was the worst–I was getting red.” (That’s her expression for when she feels her face getting red and she’s trying not to cry.)

So tell me about it.

It was about what happens to people who aren’t saved when they die. About people going to hell. And about how we’re supposed to help people so that doesn’t happen to them by telling them about Jesus. And then she “got red” again and said how she hasn’t told anyone about Jesus because everyone she knows is already saved and she has got to get out in the world and be God’s little missionary.

From the mouth of babes…God is telling me to move!

I’m not going to pretend that this little talk has turned my days around. There’s a huge difference between understanding a problem and executing a solution–and this year has really dragged me around pretty good.

A new school routine; a job change with a new office and co-workers and responsibilities; new family activities and obligations like soccer and tutoring and orthodontics; losing our beloved horse; the health challenges of older family members; losing my aunt…just so much grief to bear, even outside of the daily challenges of life!

And yet, every day, the sun goes down and comes back up in the morning. The grass dies in the winter and comes back in the spring. And the children keep growing up–whether I’m right there in the mix or curled up in a ball hiding under the covers.

And God said move!

I told the Ladybug that we do need to do more to reach out to a lost world–but I also told her that she needs to speak about Jesus to everyone. You never know when even a brother or sister in Christ needs a little encouragement too!

Do you need encouragement today? Here’s some…straight from the Lord to you (and me)…“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1:9)