Change

Change might be the one word that best sums up the last year for us.

• Jonathan and I have both had job changes-at times not by our choosing, causing large swings in our "expected" income.
• We sold our house and moved to a different city
• My brother got married
• We found out that I am pregnant

There are others that I could add to list, but these are the major points. Some of this is change that we sought out and desired, but other parts of it were unexpected {our future son was planned, if you're wondering :)}. I think I've decided that all major change, even wanted change, can be stressful. The last few weeks have been especially difficult and I had a couple moments of breakdown recently.

I was blessed to be in a fantastic Bible study while in our former city and one thing my teacher frequently stated was that it's hard to complain when you have an attitude of thankfulness. I've tried to take this attitude recently, and focus on the many, many blessings that I have in my life, instead of the circumstances that I'm not so fond of right now. We are blessed with wonderful friends and family, we have transportation, food, health, freedom, a (generally) safe country to live in, shelter, and countless others

This thought process did make me thankful and helped to alleviate my stress level, and although I do want to be thankful for all these things and keep an attitude of gratefulness, there is part of this thinking that is flawed in a sense. All of that above list is conditional and could change by the time I am done writing this post. Instead of being thankful for the effect, I need to be thankful for the cause, a God that is constant, unconditional, and unchanging. He is the only thing that I can place my trust and confidence in and that can give me peace. I do not want to take the gift for granted, but first and foremost, my focus needs to be on the giver.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17