Hello! I'm Amanda. I'm a Christ-follower, and my favorite things to do are read, write, sing, swim, and play with my cats. :) I appreciate you taking time to read my thoughts! In case you were wondering about the title of this blog, I simply chose it because love is always the answer. Anything can be fixed with love, and nothing is anything without it. :) Whether you are a Christian or not, I hope that my posts encourage you, as well as help you gain different perspectives. Have a spectacular day, and don't forget how loved you are. :)

Friday, May 30, 2014

Things Change

Change is a huge part of life, as you may have noticed so far. A lot of people like it, and a lot of people don't. If you are not a fan of change, well, that's totally understandable. It can be hard. You had finally settled into a good routine, you were finally content--and then something shifts. Even if the change is good, there's usually a catch. 

You could think of life as a lawn...You grow luscious green grass, and sticky, poky weeds. You grow colorful flowers and plain ones. Some plants thrive, but all plants die. During certain seasons, it's rainy, and during other ones, it's sunny. You spray some weed and bug killer on there, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Things end up being planted whether you agree with it or not. You grow a yard full of nice things, only to have the mowed over. And yes, sometimes dogs do their business in your lovely yard. ;) Everything is out of your control--except how you react to what happens. Change is never ideal, but you know what? Life would be so boring without it. If you just did the same exact things and stayed in the same place for years, life would be terrible. While it is definitely hard to leave stuff behind and move on from things and people you love, it would be equally awful if everything stayed the same. You would only learn from books, never from experience. You would see the same exact environment every day, there would never be any diversity. You would have the same social circle, you would never meet new people and gain new perspectives. What would life be without adventure? In real life, you never know what to expect! Now for most people, their first reaction to that statement is fear and reluctance. What if I don't like what happens? What if things are worse than they are now? What if, what if, what if. But it's all about perspective here. Never knowing what to expect can actually be pretty cool from the right standpoint. It's exciting! If you always knew what was coming, things would be awfully dull, don't you think? Imagine that throughout your whole life, every time you watched a movie or a television show, read a book, or listened to a story, someone spoiled the ending. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that you would be pretty darn frustrated about the fifth time it happened. There might be some point in still watching, reading, or listening to it, but it would certainly make the journey through it far less exciting. Now, apply that to your life. See how humdrum that would be? Knowing what kind of change is coming would not make it better. You'd think that at least you could prepare for it more efficiently, but trying to figure out how to prepare would just lead to more stress. There's simply no way to fix it--but you can always fix your point of view. 

Even if you have trouble finding a perspective that gives you peace, there is one thing you can have in your life that never changes--and it's a good thing it never changes. There's no catch, you don't have to do something magical or hard, and it will not suddenly go bonkers on you. Too good to be true? Not at all. God really is that great. He never changes a bit, and He doesn't need to, because He's already perfect. Life is tough. You can try everything you want, but even staying 100% optimistic won't stop the storms from surrounding you. The great news though, is that no matter what changes in you or your world, God is still the same. No matter what life throws at you, He still loves you, He still has an abundance of grace to give you, He's still merciful, He's still all-powerful, and He's still never-changing. What changes you could never hope to change God. So if you feel like everything is in disarray, be comforted by the fact that God is always the same, even when things change.

"Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever." ~Hebrews 13:8~

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." ~Joshua 1:9~


--Love, Amanda