Keeping the rust away

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. 

-Proverbs 19:21 

For a couple of weeks, I tried not to look any of my friends in the eye, because just the question, "How are you doing?" brought me to tears.
I was grappling with this whole idea of moving away from where I was comfortable.  I faced a long-distance support system of friends and an immediate playdate-less future.

Dramatic, I know.  Maybe that's where my daughter gets it.

 

While my friends offered words like, "excited" and "jealous," I was thinking about all of the strings that tied me to home- daunted by the amount of cutting and starting over I had to do.  Saying goodbye was like carrying a heavy pair of scissors around, snipping one beloved thing at a time.

But when the hardest part was over, the tears became less frequent.  The work at hand replaced the power of regrets. Events kept falling into place, confirming we were making a good decision.  Moving forward became a more intriguing idea.

Dramatics over.

Instead of cutting strings, I stretched them out a few hundred miles- until the next phone call, text message, or visit.

The happy news is that moving away and starting over is the perfect solution to not getting rusty in life.  Sometimes, without realizing it, we all get set in our ways.  We drive around on auto pilot and get crazy over-involved in our little self-revolving worlds.  It's hard to be objective when we do and see the same things every day, isn't it?

So I AM excited about the opportunity that God has given my family to learn new things and grow in new ways.  It's a chapter where I have to trust Him to show me what's important, where to go next, and how He can use me here or wherever.  He's a God of surprises!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

-Proverbs 3:5-6