Dealing With Change

Today I want to talk to you all about something that really made an impact on my life in the past few years.

Moving out of my childhood home. This was my favorite place in the whole world. It was all I knew for 18 years. It was where my siblings and I grew up and where I experienced joy, loss, heartbreak, laughter, and so many more emotions.

This was the home that everybody knew and so many people outside of my family called their home. We would constantly have people over and everyone felt comfortable. I felt safe and secure and when we moved I felt emotions that I didn’t even know were possible.

I felt lonely and out of place. There was no where for me to call home anymore. My family moved into a new house but it will never be the same.

I felt so silly for the longest time because I had the hardest time even talking about moving out or talking about my old house. I would cry any time it would be brought up and I didn’t know how to be comfortable in this new house I was supposed to call my home.

I had to remind myself that this was a loss that I was experiencing. There were so many memories that were formed in that house. So many relationships. It was the house that my mom and dad built to start their family together and where all of my siblings were raised. It was where my family was rebuilt after my dad died. It was where we raised our family dogs and where we had to say goodbye to a few of them. My room at that house was the place where I could go to shut out the rest of the world and where my anxiety would go away. I knew I was safe there.

So, being emotional about losing this house made sense, and I need to reassure myself of that. I also just needed to find a way to be okay and to not break down and cry every time the house would be brought up. That’s when I had to look to God for help because I knew nothing else would make me okay.

After lots of prayer and reading scripture I was reminded that I have a home in God. Moving out of my childhood home isn’t the only time that I will have to pack up my belongings and call a different house home. I was looking for a sense of consistency and stability and I had found that in my childhood home, but moving out helped me to see that the only place that I can find that is in God. He stays the same throughout all time even when there is constant change in your life.

I also wanted a reminder that even though I may not live there anymore, that house is still a part of me and those memories that were created will never go away. So… I decided to be bold and get a tattoo of the house numbers of my childhood home.

This was such a powerful experience for me because now whenever I look down I am reminded of all the happy memories that were created at that house. I feel a sense of comfort knowing that the house will always be a part of me now.

So, maybe you’re moving out of your childhood home, or going off to college or just experiencing some change in your life. I don’t know, but I hope that you choose to look to God for consistency and you find joy, comfort and security in him.