Well hello! It’s been quite a while since I last reflected on this little page, and wow am I sorry to have done another Irish goodbye (my favorite kind and one I use to a fault). The truth is, life has been quite the winding road in these last four months. All good things … but also all new things I’m learning to navigate.
- I finished full-time school, said good-bye to the days of living with close friends, and left my favorite college home (pictured left).
- I worked my first 9-5 ahem* I mean 8-5 big girl job. Yes dear young readers, the song “9 to 5” is inaccurate I hate to break it to yah. Dolly Parton must not have been a corporate woman.
- I got ENGAGED! I can’t wait to marry my beloved Ben, it’s gonna be epic.
- I moved to a new state and now live only 45 minutes from my fiancé, which is an immense gift. (More people should date in person, it’s awesome. 11/10 recommend.)
- I also started my “period of limbo” in which I’m a 50% student, 50% nanny, and 50% wedding planner until our wedding. Somehow that maths.
All this to say, it’s been one heck of a roller coaster in Monica-ville, I’m winded, and my hair looks like a rat nest. In other words, sometimes life is a lot to handle. (even when it’s all good change!)
In these past months, I felt the Lord asking me to live each of these transitions before telling the world about my experience. My shared reflections begin and end in prayer. I do not write for the sake of writing, but rather at the invitation and request of the Lord. That said, as I have entered into my new routine, the Lord has asked me to share two words that have been at the heart of my transitions.
PATIENCE & PERSEVERANCE
These are the graces we need to endure any transition, and life itself.
PATIENCE & PERSEVERANCE
These also happen to be two virtues in which I extremely lack and often disregard. I mean efficiency and ease are basically my number one love language. But isn’t it funny how the Lord asks us to work in areas we struggle not only directly, but in small seemingly insignificant moments too?
I recently started nannying a sweet little lad who loves his mother dearly. So dearly in fact his separation anxiety is so severe he cried for six hours on our first day together. No joke. What a tricky place to be! That little baby just wants his mama, and of course, I have to ask him to be brave, while I try to help him find peace in this new transition. It took a few days, and a LOT of work on my end for both patience and perseverance in loving well amongst the screams, but through prayer and the intercession of the holy family we are best mates now!
That baby needed someone to help him grow in bravery and trust, and I needed someone to help me see the value of patience and perseverance. Thus the Lord gave us each other to inspire courage and strength for our journeys back to Him.
Transitions never stop coming yall. They really never stop. If it’s not moving to college, it’s starting a new job, making new friends, suffering loss, having a child, beginning again, or mending what’s broken, the list goes on. Experiencing my own small mountain of change recently has called to mind these questions:
Why do things always have to change? Do the transitions ever end? What purpose does change serve except to bring new challenges I don’t want to face?
The answer dear friends is simple. Patience and perseverance. Things always change to teach us to adapt and persevere. Transitions never end to aid us in learning patience through difficulty. The world is not our final destination, and these transitions remind us not to get too comfortable. They remind us to *cue high school musical soundtrack* “get-our get-our get-our heads in the game”. They remind us to Run. The. Race.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
“Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified”
If we were only made for this life we would have no reason to endure difficulty. But this life was created to prepare our hearts for the Father, not as a final destination. Life may be difficult, but a difficult life is one worth living, for difficult lives are Saint-makers, and we are ALL called to be saints.
Transitions are not forever, but the lessons they teach through patience and perseverance can last a lifetime. Run the race my dear friend, and pick up those who have fallen in despair beside you. Rise up with courage and call those around you to persevere in difficulty and patiently await the joyful return to our heavenly home.
All my love and prayers,
Monica +JMJ+
