Change...for the better.

We change jobs, homes, clothes, minds, seasons, cars, shoes, and bed linens. We change money, light bulbs, phones, tires and oil (can you tell I live with a "car guy" from those last two items?).

Change is necessary…sometimes it is fun and exciting, like the change of season or a new home and sometimes it is scary or sad. 

Recently, I have been through a change, a change of job and season in my world. For the past five years I have worked as an assistant director of a weekday preschool and mother’s day out program. It was fun and rewarding in so many ways. I was able to work part-time, share my daytime hours with some special teachers and co-workers, utilize my love of writing and graphic design in many different ways and earn a paycheck to help fund our family and our adventures. I can truly say that it was a memorable experience and I gaze on those days with a special fondness. I remember saying to friends that I could never imagine leaving it. And then comes change…

Change for me came on a day this past year as I sat in my church preparing for worship. Little did I know that by the end of the day, a new course and direction for me and my family had been charted. As the morning announcements scrolled along the screen, an advertisement for a position as a receptionist and administrative assistant in my church’s office scrolled into sight.  My husband, that Car Guy, confirmed my initial reaction and told me that was me and that I needed to speak to the office administrator, now, not later. 

The Car Guy has long wanted me to work closer to home, long wanted me to have less responsibility at work, (he equated that with less stress at home for some reason!) And he saw the benefit as did I of working and serving the Lord at our home church. I took some thought and prayer on the matter and began the application process.  There are tons of details here that would be glorifying to God and yet boring to you the reader so I will not write them all, but please know that at the conclusion of the process, I could not have been more convinced that it was truly the hand of God moving me into the new position. Even though it was painful, He has birthed something new and precious from the anxiety and anguish of that initial decision to step out in faith.   

So, a month ago change occurred in my world. Now, when I travel to work, I spend six minutes in the car, if my child needs me, I am seven minutes away from her and her 4^th grade classroom. I can work at her school in the morning before my job starts. I have two hours in the afternoon to make dinner, clean house, dust, vacuum or as is more often the case, catch up on a television shows and cat nap.  My work load is significantly decreased and I am able to focus on my work duties at work and my home/mommy duties at home. What I lost in salary has more than been retrieved in time. Time, and not just time, QUALITY of time. No more texts at strange hours, phone calls to discuss work on off time, no more bringing home work to do after my child’s bedtime. No more rush, rush, rush. No more traffic – unless you count the occasional tractor that makes my drive time go from six minutes into ten. 

Life has slowed to a wonderful pace. I live AND work in the country now. I do my shopping on the internet, I make a run “into town" once a week for perishable groceries. Life is good. Change has been good. Peace has come to my mind and I am hoping to be back at the art of writing with a much more steady pace.

Happy in the Moment…now even happier enjoying more of the moments!

Beverly