These past weeks have been an emotional roller coaster.  The hormones are flying along with the tears, as fall brings with it transition and new seasons of change.

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike change? 

The weeks have been filled with middle-school preparation for the young girl, college move-in day for the grown-up girl, and a few too many middle-age realities for this mother.   None of these things make me happy, but I’m starting to realize all of them, hopefully, make me better.

For what is life, if not to grow and live and let live?  The question only remains in how we allow each transition to shape us.

All of us are heading towards the same finish line…eventually.  Like it or not, life races on and either makes us more of who we were designed to be, or less.

I pray all of us girls bravely remember to let it make us more.

Maybe middle-school doesn’t have to change us into a girl who lives guarded because of hurts and wounds from an unkind place filled with mean girls or thoughtless boys, as each day adds up to a host of years and we can easily find ourselves pretending, and no longer believing that life was made to be good.

It’s only sin that has left it so bad.

Maybe move-in day doesn’t mean we have to change and lose the sparkle that has made us beautiful from the beginning by measuring the standard of who we are and how we find our value by what other girls look like or act like; or what those boys say is important. But maybe we can make it through just by being who we uniquely are: daughters, beautifully loved by an infinite God sacrificing an infinite love and that always makes us beautiful-inside and out.  

Move-in day doesn’t have to leave us broken and shamed for a lifetime because there is grace to set us free and bring us back to who He knows we should be. 

Maybe middle-age doesn’t have to mean just the end of a good season, but it could also mean the start of another season that is just as good. Isn’t it all from the hand of God anyway?  And regardless of the change, He is always good.

And just maybe learning to let them soar doesn’t mean you have to land.

Those moments that made life great at the beginning are the reminders and promises of One who can be trusted even more in the moments and years ahead.

If we lean hard into Him and trust Him bravely through middle-school, He can cover us and keep us from growing hardened, cynical, or self-protective.

If we lean hard into Him, we can trust Him even more on move-in day to give us the courage and strength to say no or say yes to whatever our hearts really want and make us more of who we were made to be, instead of less.

And maybe, if we lean into Him extra hard, we can find that we can also bravely trust Him in middle-age to make a way where there certainly doesn’t seem to be any way that feels good, right, or fair as we grow older and learn to let go.

Perhaps the greatest lesson of all, girls, is to live life holding Him close as you embrace all these new seasons of change.  Those tears of remembrance fall because it was good, and since His love is good, it’s really a gift that keeps them falling.

What was shared together must now be stretched to share with others and stretching always causes pain.

So live life well.  There is no place for regret to rule you in middle-school, at move-in day, or in middle-age.  We must always live with an open heart and open hand to face everything life brings us so God can grow us more fully into who were born to be-even if it frightens us.

For when it is all said and done, you can trust the Maker of your heart to keep you safe.

Safe cannot be built around a house or a place.  Safe cannot be built around a person-even if that person is a mother.  Safe must be built upon the Rock.  Jesus said build your life on Him and when storms come, you and your changing life will stand safe.

We are held securely by the only One who never changes.

Stay the course, let every bit of change draw out the beauty inside you whether you be my middle school girl, my college freshman, or my empty-nesting mother heart.

For what is life, if not to grow and live and let live? The question only remains in how we allow each season to shape us.   I pray it leaves us more beautiful and sparkling with all the life and love He poured in us, and more wonderfully reflecting His image each and every day-just as He knew it would.