Skip to main content

Transition

 It's snowing outside my window. It just started to stick a little bit. I can see it on the trees and covering the leaves.

This is the first snow of the season. It means change is coming. Fall coats are no longer be sufficient. Hats, scarves and gloves become a part of my daily wardrobe. My car needs time to warm up and I should fill up with gas when it gets down to 1/4 tank.



I really like this time of year. Fall is ending and winter is coming. I like snuggling in front of a fire and wearing sweaters. I like drinking hot chocolate, apple cider and spice tea, in addition to my usual coffee consumption. I like Thanksgiving, the holiday and the practice.

While I welcome this change in season, I am so aware of how I am struggling in my own transition.

I have spent several hours contacting insurance companies to change my name now that I am doing business as Jody Striker, LCPC.

Ben is still collecting our things from the various places where we have been storing them. They are piling up in the living room and store room until we can decide how to set up our home.

We are working and reworking our schedules: work, House of Prayer, cooking, working out, church and time with friends. How much time do we invest into each of these areas? When do we say "Yes" and when do we say "No"? What is really important to each one of us and how do we support each other in those things? What does our life look like now that we are married?

I am really struggling in this transition. More than I thought that I would be.

I would like to blame this on the fact that I have basically been in transition for the past two years and I'm sick of it. I'm tired of everything changing and constantly having to adapt.

But, I actually think that it's more than that. Change is hard. For everyone. Including me.

I returned to Centre College in Danville, KY for my 10 year reunion at the beginning of November. It was SO fun to be back and reconnect with good friends. It was also powerful to remember all that God has done since then. A lot has changed in the past 10 years and I struggled to accommodate then as I am now. But, I can also look back and see how those seasons of change helped me to lean into my Beloved God and how that posture of dependence on Him produced such great growth within me.

I don't like transition and how it pulls at me and wears me down. I do like being conformed to the image of Christ and I believe that God uses transition to do that. I hope that I transition quickly, but I choose to trust in God for my joy and help until it's done.


Still Counting Gifts:

#896: A wonderful reunion
#897: Hours of conversation
#898: Beautiful fall colors in Kentucky
#899: Thin mint coffee creamer
#900: Self time-outs in my bed
#901: We finally got our YMCA membership
#902: New clients
#903: Running with Karyn and how she let me walk when I needed to
#904: Sibling bonfire in my parents backyard
#905: First snow
#906: Grace in my weakness
#907: A relaxing bath, with jets, and Real Simple
#908: Working at communication
#909: Forgiveness
#910: Pomegranate seeds in my oatmeal
#911: Ben makes me coffee in the morning
#912: Butter Chicken Curry paste
#913: Patience in others when I am struggling

Comments

  1. Jody-- love your updates. I see on here "YMCA"-- I teach the 9:00 a.m. pilates at the IDP (downtown) on Wednesdays. I'd love to see you there. It is in the Sundstrand gym.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to School

Well, after four years away from school counseling, I have decided to return. Yes, I'm keeping my private practice in counseling. I will be reducing the number of clients that I see on a weekly basis in order to work 20 hours a week as a school counselor at Rockford Christian Elementary School. This comes in the midst of conversations that I have been having with God about desire. In fact, pursuing this position kind of started those conversations. My good friend Mackenzie, who works in the business office at RCS, told me about the position innocently enough. She wanted me to have the information about the position in case I had any counselor friends who might be interested in applying. What neither she nor I could have known, was how desire would stir in my heart as soon as she started to describe it to me. There are things that I have come to absolutely love in private practice counseling. I love being my own boss, setting my own hours and having complete freedom over...

When Creative Desire Stirs

The past 3 months have felt crazy. And during all these months of crazy, busy activity in my life, desire has been stirring in the background of my heart. I read things that other people write and feel myself come alive. I talk with people and hear things that God is speaking and want to write them down and share. I listen to music, sing to the Lord and long to create something that will help other people to connect with God in worship. It has been over two months since I touched our piano. Or any piano, for that matter. This is also my first blog post in almost 3 months. Crazy months, yes. But, 3 months all the same. I feel sad about these things. And scared to start again. What if I have lost everything that I had developed? But even fear of the possible frustration of starting again has not been able to change my desire. My desire has only been stirring and growing all this time. My desire is to resume creating. With piano. With words. This is week 9 of my training for t...

31 Days to Keep a Tender Heart: October 18

  Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Ann Voskamp quoted this passage in her blog recently. Then, I read it in my one-year Bible for October 12. Seeing it twice within a week caught my attention. Verse 16 is: Always be joyful. This sounds like a command to me and I don’t think God would command us to do something we can’t do. If He tells me to always be joyful, then I believe that it is always possible for me to be joyful and that this is what God desires for me. Verse 17 is: Keep on praying. I hear another command. And, it follows the first one, which I understand to mean that prayer is related to being joyful. The joy provokes the prayer; the prayer sustains the joy, or both. Either way, I like how God has placed these two directives right next to each other. Verse 18: No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for ...