Just One Change – At a Time

I’m always talking about how parents need to make small changes, one change at a time, to improve their parenting or help their kids progress or  get in shape or to just plain make things better. And it is true – in body, mind, spirit – you can often only change one thing at at time. In fact, unless God Himself tells you different (like he did for me this winter), please stick to “one at a time” improvement.

It’s been a challenging few months because of all these changes that were forced on to my lap, but I can – and have – made some tiny, small step changes recently that are contributing to me feeling better.

The biggest change is walking daily. My husband and I started doing this last week. When the kids are in school, we do  a quick walk up the hill and down again. We just discovered that it’s about one mile walk. And it only took one week for it to go from “killer uphill hike” to “not panting for my life at the halfway mark anymore.” When the kids are around, we walk together – either around a different block or to a nearby park. Yesterday we did some extensive trekking in the sun and it felt great – must have been a few miles and it tired out the kids, so they had an awesome sleep.

For now, the morning hikes are  giving us some nice together time and it’s been great for clearing my head and working out the kinks in my  husband’s back. (He pulled something last week and the doc’s said there’s nothing for it.) Plus, I think exposure to that 25 minutes of sunshine is really changing my mood. I’m much more upbeat all of a sudden.

But that also could be the burden of change lifting. God pushed me under the wheel HARD and honestly? I thought I’d die. I worked hard at loving and respecting Him, I held tight to scriptural promises, because I was afraid that if I didn’t, I’d be angry and lash out at Him. I pushed away my own self-delusion and accepted a friend’s advice that all these changes were not too much for HIM to handle, even if I felt buried alive.

Buried alive is an apt analogy. No matter what I did, I could not unbury myself. I could not get up a month ago, but now I’m up, awake and far more alive. The way forward is clearer. Ok, it’s not crystal clear, but I can see my way through the next few weeks. It’s also pretty clear that I’m only at the halfway point of where I’d like to be in my walk with God and my  journey to be what He desires but that’s ok. I need to rest up before the next big divine improvement project starts on my soul.

Right now, my walks are literal and only around the corner. In the future, we’ll be checking out South Mountain, Trexler Nature Preserve, Camp Olympic, Bear Creek and more for hiking as a family while the kids are home all summer. I’m hoping that I can build up my walking and working out routine from these baby steps. I got the encouragement to do these walks from Couch to 5K. I’m not sure I’ll be doing a 5K amy time soon, but these walks make me feel empowered and healthy. Doing them with Chris maximizes our quality time together, and making sure they take place after a good breakfast and prayer time means they are all positive.

For me, for now, it’s one change at a time – and that’s a good, GOOD thing.