Eye Adjustments

I recently shared a post on my friend Lindsay Harrel’s blog (http://lindsayharrel.blogspot.com/2013/02/eye-trouble-post-by-jeanne-takenaka.html) about my upcoming visit to the ophthalmologist. I’m a forty-something lady who’s never had to wear anything but sunglasses. During that appointment, the doctor helped me to see my eyes are “maturing.” My first step into the world of “glasses-wearers” began with selecting the frames for a pair of prescription readers.

I received the call that the glasses were ready to be picked up. Nothing could have prepared me for the unexpected responses from my boys. When my guys got home from school, I let them know we were going to run an errand. Our youngest, “Edmund,” who didn’t know I had made the visual jump into the world of spectacles, wept. I hugged and comforted him. He didn’t think he’d like the way I’d look in glasses. “Peter,” our oldest, felt the same way, and tried oh, so gently to express his concern. What was I to do with this? I need the glasses, but my kids won’t want to look at me when I wear them? Whoa. I sooooo did not see this coming.

It made me think about how I respond to the changes God allows into my life. The step into glasses wasn’t a big deal for me. I knew it was coming, and I like the glasses I picked. I had a say in how this change became reality. It’s those changes I have no control over that are hard to work through. A job change that requires a move, finding out my dreams of pregnancy would only ever be dreams (another post for another day), the pop-up business trips that keep my hubby away for days at a time.

How do I respond to change? Honestly? Sometimes, I have myself a little cry (or a big, agonizing one), but then I must choose how to move forward. I can continue to throw myself a pity party and bring my whole family down, or I can look at it through God’s lenses. He knows the plans He has for my life. I’ve learned his plans are always better than the ones I craft for myself. Remembering this makes it easier to embrace the changes He brings about in my life.

As for my boys? Peter is trying to like me in my new glasses, even though they make me look “older.” Edmund still struggles with the idea of his mother not “looking as pretty” as she does without them. There’s a compliment in there somewhere. At least

 I don’t need to wear them all the time. We three are learning how to accept the changes that come into our lives with grace and by trusting God.

Your Turn: How do you handle change?