The Winds of Change
Greetings, all.
I am now fourteen. I had a few of my friends over for a birthday party, and I enjoyed it pretty well. We had a delightful amble on the paths in the park by my house, and we played Things and Dutch Blitz. But my favorite part was at lunchtime. We had a very good discussion, which was mainly about serving God. I believe it was a Proverbs 27:17-worthy conversation. Although, I think I talked too much, as I sometimes have the tendency to do. When we were playing things, one of the cards that we used said "Things.... that get out of control easily." And my friend Avril said, "Rachel's tongue."😄 I think she said that because, at one point during lunch, I looked up and realized that all the plates of the other girls were empty, but mine was still pretty full! Oops! I'll try to work on that. If any of you guys are talking to me and think I am saying to much and that I should shut my mouth, just say "James 1:19." 😉
Carrot cake! It looks boring, but it was delicious.😋
This spring, a few weeks before my fourteenth birthday, I had a little internal conflict about growing up, and about change. I decided to write it down as a short story. I changed some of the details. The conflict did not actually happen when I was on a walk; it happened when I was drying the dishes. And when I was thinking all these things to myself, I did not use such fancy words - I'm not that eloquent when I am talking to myself!! But the story basically gives the gist of what was going on inside my head. I hope you like it, and that it encourages you in some way!
Winds of Change
The snow that had not yet melted was brown and wet, and not very pretty to look at, but the spring air was cool, clear, and fresh. The girl stopped walking for a moment. She inhaled the air as one would breathe in the scent of a rose, and the spring wind bid her hair to dance.
Soon she began to amble again. And as the winds of spring blew over her, winds of nostalgia blew over her as well. She began to reminisce how things were when she was younger. She recalled the springs of her childhood, when she was smaller, and lived in a different house. And as she began to go over the past, two voices began to dispute inside of her.
The first voice said, “I miss the days when I was a young child. I had little schoolwork, and I didn’t have to help with the chores much. Back then, my biggest fears was getting in trouble with my parents if I broke something. Now I’m much older, and life is more complicated. And sometimes, scary. I’m fourteen. Next year I could go on a missions trip, and/or be a Counselor In Training at Bible camp, and I will be old enough to get a job. In two years I’ll probably start driving. I don’t even want to think of what I could be doing in four years! Why couldn’t I just stay a child all my life? That’s what my dad wishes I could do.”
The second voice replied, “You know you don’t really want to stay young all your life! And even though your dad says he wishes you could always be a little kid, deep down inside he doesn’t really. Life may have been easier when you were a lot younger, but now you can do so many more things than you could then! You can read, do many projects on the computer, study your Bible, mentor your friends……. So many things! You may have had more free time when you were a child, but you didn’t have many activities you could do with it!”
“But I still don’t like a lot of things about change,” countered the first. “It’s often not fun. It can hurt, and it’s scary.”
“Sure it’s scary. But why should that worry you? You have great help in times of fear and uncertainty - the God of the Ages, who never changes! And He doesn’t want you to stay the same! He wants you to change, not only physically, but in your heart also. He has great plans for you! He wants to use you in the future, and He is using you right now. Change is something that He uses to make you what He wants you to be. But if you want Him to make your heart look more like His, you have to let go of the controls of your life and let Him take over. Change won’t change your heart in the way God wants it to be changed unless you let Him change it. The winds of change can blow you in the direction of growing as a Christian, but only if you let Jesus do the steering.”
“It’s not too hard to figure out what God wants me to do right now, but what about in the future? What about when I have to decide what job I should get? Or if I should move out?? Or get a car??? Or get MARRIED??!!??”
“God will show you what to do at the right time. You just have to trust Him. Remember Proverbs 3:5-6: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.’ And don’t forget that although things change here on this earth, someday you will be in heaven. And heaven won’t have scary changes or uncertain futures. It will be endless ages of bliss, praising your King along with other Christians. You’ve asked Jesus to hold you, and you know He won’t let you go!”
The voices stopped, for the second voice had won. The girl stopped walking once more. She turned up her head to look at the sky and grinned. And then she yelled, “Let them blow!”
I suppose that the people walking by her as she did so thought she was crazy. But it didn’t matter. Because there is Someone who knows that she wasn’t crazy at all.
