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The Stress of Change

Hope Ministries - Columnist
Posted 4/30/21

I have a hard time with change. It's very frustrating and stressful for me, and I come kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone when I know there's no other choice and I have to finally surrender …

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The Stress of Change

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I have a hard time with change. It's very frustrating and stressful for me, and I come kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone when I know there's no other choice and I have to finally surrender and accept the changes I'm facing.

The road we have lived on for a very long time has never had a cable company run a line through here. But now that there was a push to get high-speed internet to all children because of school closings, a new fiber optics cable was finally installed in our area. Along with that came the offer for us all to hook up to it.

This is where I entered the “stressed-frustrated-I hate this” stage. Did I mention I don't do change well? Did I also mention that I am technologically challenged and fight tooth and nail before giving into technology changes?

I was able to handle some of the changes well, but now we were about to embark upon learning a foreign TV system. We also got new cell phones that not only needed all our info transferred from the old phones, but we had to learn how to navigate through the many changes these offered.

By now I was in full stress mode and so frustrated I just wanted to cry and throw the new phones. I finally gave into the cry and decided it was time to start praying through the surrender process. It was too late to change anything back and now I just had to move forward and let it all go if I was ever going to get rid of this stress headache.

It was also time to ask for help - our kids who have no problem dealing with technology and even welcome the newest changes that come along. I put it all aside until they could come, and within a couple of hours everything was done, transferred, and I even got some lessons in how to use things I've never used before that I'm actually enjoying. Imagine that!

After the dust settled, I've been able to learn some lessons from this. Change and learning in areas that are hard for us is a good thing. We shouldn't fight it but accept it as part of growth. When it becomes frustrating and we don't understand something, there is someone who can help. We just have to ask for the right help, and things become much easier. I could have saved myself days of stress and frustration if I would have prayed, surrendered, and asked for help sooner.

This past year has been one of excruciating, unwanted change for many people that has caused untold stress, and it's not over yet. But God is always there to help us through the changes in our lives. We don't have to go through them alone, and He will always provide the help we need to go through them. We just have to be willing to accept change and ask for that help. Things would go much smoother.

Hope Ministries is a Christian counseling center, and we are here to help. If you would like to speak confidentially with someone, give us a call at 482-5300.

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