The Grace to Change

By Stacy LaMorte

Summer can be such a wonderful time for a family to recharge and refresh. It is also a time of preparation for all kinds of change.

Some of us have children going off to school for the first time. Some of us have our youngest child going off to school, leaving us with hours of the day with no children at home for the first time. Some of us have our first or last child going off to college to college, creating the proverbial “empty nest”.

Our oldest child is heading off to college this fall about two hours from home – just far enough away to feel some real independence, but close enough to be able to come home when she wants to. At the same time, our youngest child is starting high school at a school that neither I nor her older sister went.

So much change.

Thank goodness their brother’s school isn’t changing this year, because if I had one more set of emails to field for another kid, it might be too much!  But then I know God would give me the grace to handle that, too.

That is what I am trying to be actively aware of here: God’s grace.

He doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle and, especially, if we are consciously aware of where his grace is present in every interaction, we can allow that grace to flow through us, alleviating anxiety or worry in the face of change.

Thank you, God, for your unlimited, unfailing grace in the face of change.