Navigating Seasons of Change with Hope
My youngest child just graduated from high school. How do we navigate seasons of change successfully? I share 3 tips which will help us get through with God's help.
Episode Discussion Points
My daughter just graduated from high school and she is the youngest. So, I am experiencing a range of emotions.
An artistic Bible Verse a friend gave me as a senior in high school that applies to our situation today.
Story of lesson I learned from a friend who recently had back surgery.
A story of a friend whose husband suddenly passed away, and what I would tell her.
Three Tips to Help Navigate Change with Hope
Remember God and trust Him.
Slow Down & Notice Simple Joys
Remember Life Has Seasons and be patient
Bible Verses Shared
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own undestanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths.” —Proverbs 3:5-6
Ecclesiastes 3
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to arend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love.
Invitations
Talk to God during your time of change and share with Him all of your emotions.
Slow down and be patient.
#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #change #Godshelp #seasonsoflife #JesusChrist
Transcription
You can find the transcription of today's episode here: Tamara Anderson 0:03
Is it a season of change for you? Oh my goodness, I don't know about you. But for me, I am in a season of change. And my emotions are kind of roller coastering right now. And so I'm going to talk to you today about three things that I've learned. Through seasons of change in the past that I'm applying right now that are helping me get through this season of change. Stay tuned.
Tamara Anderson 0:34
Welcome to Stories of Hope in Hard Times, the show that explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult times, all with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. Join me on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and wisdom learned in life's hardest moments.
Tamara Anderson 0:59
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Tamara's takeaways on the Stories of Hope in Hard Times podcast. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. And on today's episode, we're going to talk about change. And one of the amazing things about this podcast is we talk about hope in relation to the many different changes that we experience in life. And it seems like life is always changing or tweaking just a little bit here and there. Sometimes they're little changes. And sometimes they're really big changes like mental health challenges, or physical challenges or situational challenges.
Tamara Anderson 1:40
And today, I'm going to talk to you about a really big change that just happened in my very own life. My youngest child, my daughter, just graduated from high school, just barely. And I have had quite the range of emotions over the past year knowing that this was coming and anticipating it. And there are days that I am just so excited for her as I think about her starting college in the fall, and all the things that she has to look forward to, I get so excited that I can hardly wait to see how everything pans out for her. And then there are days when I'm like oh my goodness, she's growing up, she's leaving the house. And there's part of my mama heart that is just like, I don't want that change to happen. I'd like to just wrap her up in a blanket and not send her out into the big, crazy world out there. You know, I want to keep her safe. I want to still be able to mother her than the way that I have been.
Tamara Anderson 2:45
And yet at the same time, I know that this is her next right step. And I'm confident that she will make good choices. And so I'm kind of teetering between these two extremes of emotions, the extreme joy, and then this extreme sorrow for myself that mothering is changing. And she isn't going to need me as much as she used to on a day to day basis. So what about you, are you experiencing change? I know several of my friends have experienced change in the last few weeks as well. And I'm going to be sharing some of their experiences.
Tamara Anderson 3:25
As I talk through some of these tips on things I've learned about applying gospel principles in times of change. And the first thing I wanted to share with you is as my daughter has approached graduation, we've had several chats. And I've been able to think back to my senior year and going through this change. And I knew it was my first really, really dramatic change as far as moving out from my family and experiencing all that and I was leaving some of my best friends because they were going to different colleges. And I remember taking walks and processing some of these changes with some of my friends. And one of my sweet friends gave me a little plaque that I'm going to show you right now.
Tamara Anderson 4:10
And it is a beautiful plaque that has the verse of scripture in it. That is my first tip. And it is the verse in Proverbs three, five and six. And it says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path. And I love that because it was a very appropriate thing for my friend to give me at that crucial juncture in my life. And I've kept this plaque with me, it's become very meaningful to me through the many ups and downs of my life, to remember that in times of change, God sees the end from the beginning and he can see where I'm headed on my path. He knows where I am as a mom right now he knows that that's going to Change, and he's going to help me through that change.
Tamara Anderson 5:02
He sees where my daughter is heading. And he will help her on that change. And so I've just got to remember him, and include him. As I process this change, talk to him about it through prayer. And I have been talking to him about it. I've thanked him the other day for her being able to participate in her wonderful graduation, and praying for her as she selects classes for her first semester and all these things. But I'm also talking to him about how I'm feeling about this, you know, and I think that's a really good thing to do.
Tamara Anderson 5:40
When we are processing any kind of change big, small, and between anything that tweaks or is unexpected. It's a good thing to sit down, kneel down, or in your car, just take a moment and pray and communicate with him. I'm feeling sad, excited, frustrated, nervous about this change. And help me to process this, is there something I need to think of differently? Is there an idea that I need to consider that I haven't before, you know, talk to him about your options, and be patient with yourself as you process that with God. So that is the first tip that I learned.
Tamara Anderson 6:26
And I'm still continuing to learn as I take new and different steps into the dark darkness because I can't see where life is going to lead me in a couple of months. I can see where it's heading and it's it's sometimes scary. The unexpected is always a little bit scary. So remember God and trust in Him. That is tip number one.
Tamara Anderson 6:50
Now, tip number two, I have learned or relearned watching a friend of mine. And let me tell you, just in a nutshell a little bit about her situation. She is one of those people that is on the go. She's been very busy. She's gone back to school, and I've just been so proud of her. And just a little bit over a month or so ago, she tweaked her back and ended up having to get surgery because one of her nerves got pinched. And it has taken her from you know, running 100 miles an hour to being slowed down. And she says I'm now in chair jail.
Tamara Anderson 7:29
She She really can't do much. She's been able to get up and walk now. But that's about it. She's either sitting in this chair, or she is walking. And that's about all she can do. She can't pick anything up. She can't do anything else. And it has really slowed her life down. But one of the things I have learned watching her is the joy she has found in noticing little things. Let me give you an example. On her daily meanderings because it's so slow, she doesn't call it walking on her daily meanderings through our neighborhood. She pauses.
Tamara Anderson 8:12
And like the other day, she pointed out to me, Tamara, look at this rose bud right here. Isn't this the most perfect rosebud you've ever seen? I mean, look how beautiful that is. One way to meander a little bit farther down, and she pointed a look at the color on this Lily. Isn't that pretty? I haven't seen one that color before. And so what I've noticed about her is even though her life has taken this huge dramatic change and it's been very hard for her to process, that it has slowed her down enough to notice little miracles, to notice little mercies that God is placing in her path, things that she has walked by hundreds of times, but never really paused long enough to see.
Tamara Anderson 9:01
And so sometimes when we're processing change, we tend to want to kind of zoom through it as fast as we can. Let's just get through this. Keep going. When really I think there is a definite blessing about slowing down and finding little miracles, finding things that bring joy to our lives that perhaps we've been missing. And I've really learned that watching this friend as she has processed this ginormous change in her life. That slowing down has enabled her to see little miracles and I love that example to me. What am I missing because I'm running through life too fast.
Tamara Anderson 9:52
If I slowed down and really took time to feel my emotions and process the change what I noticed things When I noticed God speaking to me, because I took time to notice a miracle, or a thought, or a prompting. And so that has been another thing that has just been rolling around in my head. What am I missing? Because I'm moving too fast, too fast. And how can I slow down and take time to acknowledge these feelings and process them, because we need to process them, whether we're talking them through with somebody else, or we are writing them down, or some other way of getting these emotions that go along with the change, processed in our mind and in our body. And moving through them helpfully right.
Tamara Anderson 10:48
Now, this third tip is one that you will not want to miss. And it has a beautiful verse of scripture that goes along with it. And we're going to pause really quick before I dive into it and have a quick break, and then we'll come right back. And I will share with you this third tip that I think is really one of the most important, stay tuned.
Tamara Anderson 11:06
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Tamara Anderson 12:25
Welcome back.All right, we were talking about our first two tips being remember God in your time of change and trust Him, the second being slow down, take time to notice little miracles. And the third is, remember that there are times and seasons of our lives, and they are different. And we need to be patient as we work through them. There's a particular chapter of scriptures that has just been kind of going through my mind that as I've been processing my daughter's change recently, that I just keep coming back to.
Tamara Anderson 13:04
And it's found in Ecclesiastes three in the Old Testament. And I think we've all heard part of these verses at some point in our lives. And it goes like this, starting in verse one, TO EVERYTHING there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones that time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to get a time to lose a time to keep a time to cast away, A time to rend and a time to sow a time to keep silent and a time to speak A time to love.
Tamara Anderson 14:01
And I'm going to pause right there and just say that I love that this verse of scripture acknowledges the dramatic change, that there are going to be times and seasons where you're up kind of like a pendulum. And then there's going to be times and seasons when you're swinging to the other side. And it's going to be kind of down. But just like this four seasons of our year, the spring, summer, fall and winter seasons. It's circular. And we can see that pattern in our life. So we are at the winter time of our life when we're feeling down and discouraged. I have a friend right now whose husband passed away suddenly and my heart has been grieving for her. I can't even imagine the emotions she is feeling right now.
Tamara Anderson 14:59
And so As I have thought of her and this change in her life, and it's so hard and so dramatic, I wondered what I should tell her. What can I say at a time like that. And I've interviewed enough people on this podcast to know that it does get easier after a loved one passes away. And we have such a dramatic sense of loss. But that sorrow and grief are hard. And this verse of scripture reminds me that even though we have those falls and winters of our lives, that spring, and summer, days of greater light, and sunshine, are ahead.
Tamara Anderson 15:51
And that brings me peace. It brings me peace for my friend. It brings me peace for the days that I'm going to be grieving when my daughter is gone in the fall up to college, it brings me peace, to know that I can lean on God, and that he can get me through anything. And I'm just really thankful to know that there are seasons, and that when we're in a down and dark season, that spring is just around the corner. I've just got a whole Dawn and cleave unto Christ. And make sure that I lean on him. And look for the angels slow down, look for the angels around me look for the miracles around me. And surely, I'll see them and find them. And hopefully I can be one. Hopefully I can be an angel to those who are in the down moments of their lives in the winter seasons of their lives. Ah, oh my goodness, guys, it is hard to talk about these tough subjects were changes impacting not only me, but you others we know and love in such dramatic fashion.
Tamara Anderson 17:17
And I'm thankful to know that I can turn to God and pray for not only myself and my challenges, but also pray for those I love who are going through hard and extreme challenges. So you're probably wondering, alright, Tamara, so what are my takeaways from your episode? What can I take from what you've said today and apply to my life today?
Tamara Anderson 17:47
I think there's really two key things. The first, include God in whatever change you are in right now. And trust him to help you and guide you. So say that prayer, including where you are given your heart, your worries, your concerns, your anger, your sorrow, share it with him, and beg for help. Don't be surprised when he sends friends and loved ones to help and allow them to help you through that change. So that's the first one include God and trust Him in that. And the second thing is I invite you to slow down, like my cute friend on her walk and notice the miracles all around you. Even amidst your change. Maybe you can even pray and ask God to help you see those little miracles. Find moments of joy amidst your sorrow amidst your grief amidst your change midst your confusion of wherever you are in life.
Tamara Anderson 18:52
So my friends, let's navigate change together. Let's navigate it with hope and faith in Jesus Christ. Because I know we can do all things with his help. So hope on!
Tamara Anderson 19:06
Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. If you like what you heard, subscribe so you can get your weekly dose of powerful stories of hope. I know there are many of you out there who are going through a hard time, and I hope you found useful things that you can apply to your own life in today's podcast. If you'd like to access the show notes of today's show, please visit my website stories of hope podcast.com. There you will find a summary of today's show, the transcript and one of my favorite takeaways. You know, if someone kept coming to mind during today's episode, perhaps that means that you should share this episode with them. Maybe there was a story shared or quote or a scripture verse that they really really need to hear. So go ahead and share this podcast. May God bless you specially if you're struggling with hope to carry on and have the strength to keep going when things get tough remember to walk with Christ and He will help you bear the burden and above all else Remember God loves you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai