I have a strange relationship with change. I love it and I hate it. I long for it and I dread it.
I have not lived in the same place for more than a year since I was 17. While moving to a new place is always exciting, I don't feel like I have a home. And, again, this is something I both love and hate. I love that I shake it up a bit each year and move to a new location, find new places to hang out, meet new people, etc. But at the same time, it'd be nice to have a place to really call home. (My mom will tell me that my home is my parents' house, but we all know that's different.)
My feelings on change extend into my relationships, too. Above all things on earth, I value my relationships with people. Relationships are inevitably going to change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse and sometimes with little or no effect. While I love building new relationships and making new friends, I find that I have a hard time letting my existing relationships change (especially for the worse). When I have what I feel is a good relationship, I hate seeing it change to something less than I desire.
I need to learn to accept changing relationships. Just because a relationship might change in a way that I perceive as negative doesn't mean that relationship is dead or dying. It just means it's different. I can't force relationships to be something they're not.
When relationships change for the worse, you can either accept it or reject it. Sometimes, the relationship is worth fighting for. Sometimes, you just have to surrender and let the relationship go where it needs to go.
Neither choice is easy. And the choice is not always ours to make.
I have not lived in the same place for more than a year since I was 17. While moving to a new place is always exciting, I don't feel like I have a home. And, again, this is something I both love and hate. I love that I shake it up a bit each year and move to a new location, find new places to hang out, meet new people, etc. But at the same time, it'd be nice to have a place to really call home. (My mom will tell me that my home is my parents' house, but we all know that's different.)
My feelings on change extend into my relationships, too. Above all things on earth, I value my relationships with people. Relationships are inevitably going to change, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse and sometimes with little or no effect. While I love building new relationships and making new friends, I find that I have a hard time letting my existing relationships change (especially for the worse). When I have what I feel is a good relationship, I hate seeing it change to something less than I desire.
I need to learn to accept changing relationships. Just because a relationship might change in a way that I perceive as negative doesn't mean that relationship is dead or dying. It just means it's different. I can't force relationships to be something they're not.
When relationships change for the worse, you can either accept it or reject it. Sometimes, the relationship is worth fighting for. Sometimes, you just have to surrender and let the relationship go where it needs to go.
Neither choice is easy. And the choice is not always ours to make.
“It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.” -Donald Miller