Dear Guts Is The Key Reader, It has been several months since I have published a Guts Is The Key Acrostic Installment. But fear not, I have not forgotten. G.U.T.S. #40 is Get Used To Stages –

Get Used To Stages – Rome really wasn’t built in a day. Great triumphs take great sacrifices. There is only one thing you can be sure of & that’s change. It does not matter if you like it or not. Accepting that the situations around us will be continually different is a healthy part of maturity.

Don’t get stuck in complacency; change is coming. Remember, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Change can be overwhelming, especially if we try to face more than the one at hand. We need to have vision that there will be perpetual change. But we only need to deal with these changes, one at a time. Deal with the one facing you and have an eye open for what’s next. Still, do not fall into the trap of becoming ineffective, because you can not deal with the present due to the weakness of worrying about the future.

Additionally, not only do our external circumstances change but our personal approach to life must change. We want to get to our goal but first we must pay the price. If you don’t want to grow; remember the other option is to rot.

A baby gets up on his knees & it is growth. A toddler takes uncertain steps and it is growth. A child learns to ride his bike and it is growth. A teen learns to drive a car and it is growth. An adult learns to pay for all this and it is growth. But a baby can not step, ride, drive or pay. A toddler needs to get past his knees and onto his feet but can not ride, drive or pay. A teen better learn to stay on his feet, take certain steps and learn to drive but realize, he still can not pay. An adult better stay on his knees, so he can make his steps certain, teach his children to ride and survive his teenager driving the car, so he can pay for it all………. But fortunately, each progressive step in this cycle is built on the strength of learning from the previous.

I have a personal saying that I try to live in, each day. “Face everything with rigid flexibility.” It sounds like a contradiction but its not. We must be strong but we must also be loose. Do not belabor lost causes. Let them go. Learn to move on, when life’s circumstances change. This is part of our Creator’s plan for us, that we learn to have a living, developing, healthy spirit; even when life throws us curve balls and plans must be altered or abandoned. This is the strength that God wants to build in us, in this life.

Because of the influence of my departed sister Detra, I think a lot about life as a patchwork quilt. There is always another stitch to be sewn while we are still alive. And if you look only at the underside, there are a lot of tatters and loose threads. But if you look at the upside, there are patterns, colors and a design of beauty. Look at the upside. Change is normal. The unexpected will happen. But it is all a beautiful part of God’s plan, if you are looking at the right side of things.

Be rigidly flexible as life washes you with its ever altering, moving waves. Change is coming. Change with it, until you experience all the currents and sways that will make your wonderful life.

“To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose, under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1…….. Get Used To Stages. G.U.T.S. #40 .

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