Yesterday, most of us in the US had to spring forward our clocks one hour. This is a love/hate moment for me.
I hate to spring forward and lose 1 hour of sleep, my body takes about a week to adjust and mourn the loss…. BUT the love part is that I get about 2-3 hours more lighted time in the evenings to ride my bike and to do more active things outdoors.
I know us moms and dads struggle with our kids with any change but a change in them going to bed when it is dark or light is a huge one. My son Charlie is 13 and we don’t struggle with this as much, but when he was younger, say even up until about 10 or 11, this time change was the hardest because it was still light out when it was time to put him down to sleep. I remember when he just started having words he would say, “still light, no sleep”. I would or my husband would lay with him for a few hours. It was tough.
I was thinking about the time change and how the changes in our life are just like the “spring forward” change: there is a love/hate relationship. The hate part is that it is tough, it is hard, it is exhausting at times…. BUT the love part is that we see growth in our kids with the changes, we see possibilities, opportunities, more hours of light. It just made me smile to think about all the times that I was grumpy myself when change happened, anxious, worried, all those things, but didn’t look ahead at all the good that could come from it.
For instance, this year my Charlie who has high functioning autism is in the 6th grade. He has to change classes almost every hour. I prepped him for this since a year ago January when he was in the 5th grade, explaining to him the difference in all these last 6 years. Instead of him being in the same class most of the day, he will now be going to different rooms, with different teachers for each of the different subjects. At first he didn’t understand why. I admit I was a bit nervous that all of these changes would be a lot for him. For years, we have worked on tolerating change. In fact, I made him a card for a few years that said, “Sometimes things change and change is good”. I said this to him almost daily with a big, big smile!
The great part about this change for Charlie is that it has brought out how far he has come with independence and his social skills. He is shining this year! We are still working on lots of skills but he is rising to them all. I see him in the hallway at school changing classes and it amazes me. He is wanting to be more social and cares about his peers and he is trying to interact more with them. If that change of him going to Middle School didn’t occur, even though we both were anxious, we wouldn’t be able to see the great growth of independence it is bringing out.
Christ also wants to see changes and growth in us: in our devotional life (our time alone with him each day), in our serving life, and in our relationships.
He wants us to “spring forward” too: growing in grace, love, patience, gentleness, love, joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness and self-control.
Are you springing forward in your personal relationship with Christ? Are you relying on Him to help you through changes in your life? Are you trusting in Him and obeying Him when He calls you to make changes?
Blessings,
Patty Myers
autismblessings
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