The times they are a-changing

Oh my goodness!

I have just spent the best part of an hour clearing junk somehow stored on my phone and finally, after I-don't-know-how-many-weeks, the little icon on my phone, which announced to me every single time I looked at the pesky device, 'storage space running low' has GONE!!

The trouble is, that in clearing this junk, I had to go through some necessary but time-consuming effort. I am not techno-savvy at the best of times but figured out the necessary action mainly because I had ignored the apparent need to do something the previous time! 

Briefly, my phone had accumulated a PILE of pictures that arrived, I think, from playing a game on my phone. I had no clue where these pictures were stored on my phone nor how to delete them apart from downloading EVERYTHING onto my pc with the option of deleting the 'everything selected' from my phone after! BUT because I wanted to leave maybe a dozen things on my phone, I had to go through over 600 items and deselect just the few I wanted to keep. UGH!

But, God is good to me and while I was huffing and puffing about this, His still small voice, nudged my spirit, all kinda gentle-like...as He does. 

'You know, if you had only done this job when it first needed doing, it wouldn't have taken you all this time.'  

'HMPH!' replies I. 'I KNOW that NOW! but I didn't know how to do it before, did I? How was I supposed to know?'

I stopped suddenly, realising that at least Hubs would have been able to point me in the right direction. I am one of those usually-male types (sorry, but it IS usually male) that can't be bothered to read the instructions on anything new. I'd rather just put it to work and puzzle, 'Can I REALLY not get a square peg into a round hole?' But here I was now, with the light dawning that my first step in a problem, is to see if there is anyone I can ask to help. In any case, to save myself a bundle of frustration and time, I can make potentially big tasks shorter and less daunting by dealing with it in smaller steps more frequently. For me this calls for change! Change is a pesky, hard thing. It is NOT comfortable. Often,it is not easy. But God is always in the business of change. As Eric Johnson of Bethel Church once said, 'We are always in transition because God is always changing us - we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another.' 

And I love this quote...

I love how the picture shows the beautiful diamond which will have been formed under pressure over a LONG time from a plain, ugly piece of carbon. But what I want, is to be the diamond without the necessary, uncomfortable conditions. I have just had my 57th birthday this week. After all those years, I have been changing. I have said this before, I like me.  If I wasn't me, I would like me as a friend. It doesn't stop me wanting to be better but 'the only person I need to be better than is the me I was yesterday.' In the meantime, the great news is that God loves me just the way I am - all the time. No exceptions. Nothing I do or say makes me more or less likeable to Him nor more or less loveable. I am always His favourite. So I can keep looking out for the changes and learn to see those inconvenient, time-consuming lessons in a different light. I can KNOW God doesn't mind me taking the time to learn them. My time is one of His gifts to me so I can commit that time to Him and ask Him to help me make the best of it. Most areas of life - personal, church, day-to-day running, are facing significant change just now and I am going to be keeping my Father busy asking for help from whatever source He thinks is best. Thank goodness He is in it with me. One thing is for sure,  I also intend to take as much enjoyment as I can out of the journey.