Might as well JUMP!

Last weekend we went to hear Larissa speak in church after coming home from her mission.  Afterwards we headed to her house for a potluck lunch, which is always a good time to catch up with family and what's going on with their lives.

I told Craig later that I would classify our family "theme" based on the things we talked about that afternoon as CHANGE.  It seemed as if nearly everyone in the family had changes ahead.  For example there are the brother-in-laws that are looking for a change in their work.  There are the pregnant ladies with all the change that entails: a new body, and soon a new baby.  There are the graduating nephews looking forward to the change from full-time student to full-time worker.  There are those that are facing changes of either heading off to college, coming home from a mission, or leaving for a mission.  There are college students in the family with questions of whether to change majors or whether to change apartments.  Everywhere you look in our family there are changes coming up.

With all these changes coming it feels (to me, anyway) like we're all standing on the edge of a cliff ready to jump off to new and different things.  The question is, how do we feel about jumping?  Are we excited, ready to go....WHEE!...we just leap?  Or are we timid, wanting to ease our way off that cliff, not sure we really want to do it until we make sure we know exactly where we'll land?  Maybe we don't even want to jump off that cliff at all: we'd rather just stay right where we currently are!

But, change is inevitable.  It happens, and there's no getting around it. It tests our faith at times in not only Heavenly Father and the paths He's leading us down, but also our faith in ourselves as well.

Change is often very good for us, regardless of how challenging it may be.  It's a chance to grow and stretch and become something more than we have been before.  I have tried lately, as I have pondered on change, to remember that Heavenly Father is watching out for me, and He will be there for me as I go through changes.  Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."  That scripture helps me to be brave in the face of change.  Those changes we face shouldn't be thought to be "of evil", but rather something that will lead us to an expected end that Father has in store for us.  An end that brings us peace.  That brings us closer to Him.  That brings us greater joy.  That brings growth and maturing that can come no other way. 

So, take a deep breath, get your toes right up to the edge of that cliff and JUMP!