Inspirational Author
+Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka
Sometimes, we know a change is coming. Other times, it makes its presence known through a simple tumble down a mountainside.
Yes, that would be the change I just encountered. We took the boys skiing recently. I was on my first run of the day, hurrying down ahead of hubby and Edmund, because I needed to exchange my boots.
The boots got exchanged all right . . . for a splint and a sprained knee.
By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka
***This is not my normal style of blog post. I had planned to post my third blog about perfection and good enough, and I will . . . next week. This week, I’m wrestling with all that’s happened in our country. So, I thought we could wrestle with it together. I’d love to hear your thoughts at the end of this post.***
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I have a confession to make. I struggle with the thought of being just one person. Just one Christian. For years, this struggle has left me in a place where I figured I can’t change the world, so I’ll focus on living the best Christian life I can. And I’ll ignore . . . not ignore, exactly . . . pray, but keep myself distanced from the world and all that is espouses.
By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka
Everything is changing. Okay, maybe not everything. And certainly not everything all at once.
The leaves have almost spent all their color and are falling to the ground for another Colorado winter. The temperatures are changing. In Colorado, that looks like 70 degrees one day and 42 degrees the next. We’re definitely moving deep into autumn.
By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka
My Five Minute Friday prompt this week is—New. This largely unedited “rough draft” form of writing stretches this perfectionist, in the best of ways. I write for five minutes on a given topic. If you’re interested in learning more about 5-Minute Fridays, check out our hostess, Kate Motaung’s site. Or, click on the link at the bottom of this post. As you read my simpler Friday posts, I hope you’ll join in the conversation!
NEW
I set out to open a document to write an FMF post and the button I pushed? “New.”
This got me thinking. Sometimes a new chapter in my life begins as a blank page. I get to fill it with words, actions, memories, smiles. It becomes written on, even wrinkled.
Sometimes, New pages interrupt my life, changing what I think is already a good thing. I don’t ask for the New, it just presents itself in my days.
Like when appendicitis came knocking Easter weekend.
When infertility barged its way into my husband’s and my careful plan for our family.
When we think things are one way with our family . . . only to find out there’s a new diagnosis to grapple with.
Sometimes I love New because I hold the pen that writes my impressions, hopes and dreams on it’s empty surface.
Other times I need to accept New—the New Normal. The thing I get to do?
Control how I respond to the New that enters my life unexpectedly.
New isn’t bad. It’s different. Whether I choose the New document—for my day, for my season in life—or whether it’s given to me by the God whose mercies are new every morning, I have the choice of how I respond.
Is it with acceptance?
Or with resistance?
Or resignation?
I’ve done it each of these ways.
And God is faithful to meet me in each. Though, when New enters my life in ways I’m not fond of, and I accept it with His grace guiding me? It’s incorporation into the pattern of my life becomes a little less New and a little more comfortable to live with.
What about you? What New page has opened giving you the chance to write on it? How have you worked through the New pages that turned when you weren’t ready for them?
By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka
My Five Minute Friday prompt this week is—Change. This largely unedited “rough draft” form of writing stretches this perfectionist, in the best of ways. I write for five minutes on a given topic. If you’re interested in learning more about 5-Minute Fridays, check out our hostess, Kate Motaung’s site. Or, click on the link at the bottom of this post. As you read my simpler Friday posts, I hope you’ll join in the conversation!
Change
Isn’t it crazy how we sometimes yearn for change without realizing it? When I was single, I wanted a change in my status, in the form of a gold band (and a diamond) on my left finger.
God gave me an amazing husband. A change in status led to many changes in addresses as we traveled at Uncle Sam’s will with the Air Force.
After a few years in marriage, I yearned for a change in status again. Children. We’d tried to have children, but God’s plan was not for us to conceive. That change in my plans about broke me. But, he did give us a change…..we had the privilege of adopting two amazing boys.
Anyone who’s a mother knows that change is the daily constant with kids in the home. I haven’t yearned for any more changes in status because I want to cherish each moment with our kids.
And it might be in part because under it all, I don’t like change. I like predictability in my schedule, in my days.
God has a way of mixing things up though—of changing them—because it’s through change that I am forced to draw near to Him, to trust Him through it.
Change is not something I often ask for, but when I have it 1) leads to more change and 2) challenges me to grow deeper with Jesus.
Change…..status, roles in life. Yearning for change without knowing it has led to lasting changes in my character (thanks to Jesus taking over more of who I am). It’s led to depth in empathy and compassion for others.
It’s led to Him shining more brightly through me.
Change is seldom something I yearn for. But, when God’s given the asked-for yearning, He’s blessed me far more richly than I could have ever imagined in the initial asking.
What about you? What’s your take on change? WHat’s one word of advice for walking through change?
Check out Kate Motaung’s FMF: Change
I’ve been waiting for spring.
Winter has worn hard on most of the United States this year, with barely a respite from snow and biting cold. Even in the monotony of the landscape, there is beauty in winter time (Yes, I know some will refute this!).
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?
Jeanne Takenaka 