Change is Here!

This weekend, my husband and I FINALLY got internet in our home.  Since we moved a little over a year ago, we have been either using internet at work (which blocks most of the sites I want to look at - not bad, just anything shopping or Facebook - and doesn't like pictures of any kind) or from the hot spot on my mobile phone.  I probably wouldn't have moved as quickly on getting it as my husband did. He didn't know what he would do if he were at home for a week by himself. . .without any internet.  Let me explain. :)

When we want to go on the internet at home, we must go through the following:

1. Find my phone (in my purse, on my person, on the charger, etc.).  Which means, if I am not home, there is no internet at home. . .
2. Put my phone on the charger if it was not already there.  Using the hot spot drains the battery life.  If Josh wanted to use his e-reader, he had to unplug my phone. . .from behind our bed, move it to the living room, and plug it back in. . .then out of the kindness of his heart, plug it back in behind the bed.  I <3 him!
3. Hope there is 3G coverage. . .
4. Activate the hot spot (there is a cap on usage per month).
5. Plug the laptop charger in and connect to the laptop.
6. Hope that there is 3G coverage on the phone. . .
7. Open the laptop and wait for it to catch the internet signal from the phone. . .
8. Hope there is adequate 3G coverage. . .
9. Once we got online, we were fine. . .as long as we didn't try to listen to music, try to download, or try to watch a movie. . .
10. Don't ask about if we wanted to print something. . .

Our having internet at home was not as simple as sitting down and opening an internet browser.  One had to weigh very carefully if using the internet was worth following the aforementioned steps.  

Last night, shortly after the guys got the internet hooked up, we went to Josh's school's graduation program.  As I was thinking on my way home, I was contemplating the fact that I really wasn't on board for getting internet this soon. . .but why?  I realized that it was because - even though there were a lot of steps to take - I got used to jumping through hoops.  The unique thing about humans is that once we get used to something, we hate to change it.

Being a receptionist at a high school that is over 100 years old, I work with a lot of people who don't like change.  I won't go into the details, but basically, if something has been done the same way for 50 years - or been in the same place for 50 years - one cannot change it. . .without ramifications, anyway.  Sometimes, I laugh. Sometimes, I don't.  It is amusing to me how much people refuse to change.

I don't really care to change either, but I feel that since I am a child of God, He gives me the ability to change. Not through myself, of course, but through Him.  Now, if you look up the word "change" in the Bible, you will only find references to changing things - not yourself. I believe the biblical word is "transformed."  The Bible says in Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. . ."  We change ourselves by the renewing of our mind, or the renovation of our mind, or the tearing down of the old and inserting the new.  

If I were to renovate my kitchen, there is no way I would keep my old cabinets around.  I would take them out and get rid of them.  I would go to a store and look at all of their cabinet selection.  I might not even buy anything the first time, but maybe I would go back multiple times until I knew that was what I wanted.  Then I would take my husband and show him what I wanted.  I would take pictures and send them to my family to look at.  Then, I would purchase the ones I wanted and have them installed.  I would dwell on my new cabinets and probably not think of the old ones except for a few laughs. 

That is how we are to change.  We are to read the Bible and listen to preaching. (Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.) We mull it over and over in our minds. Then we get new cabinets. . .I mean, new habits. Change takes time.  Change takes faith.  Change takes love.  Change takes wanting to be like Jesus. . . and not like another human - no matter how famous.

I have had two instances of change this year that were not of my own doing.  They were attitude/personality changes.  I prayed about them.  One was the fact that I was asked to teach a young children's Sunday school class.  I don't have much patience with little kids.  The other was that our church piano player was moving quite a distance away and would not be able to attend our church on Wednesday nights.  I am not good at playing the piano, but I needed to have a little jump-start on the learning angle of it.  Both instances were those that I prayed that the Lord would help me love my little ones and that He would help me understand piano playing.  I must admit that to date, I love my little ones.  I didn't do it, Jesus did.  I am doing better at the piano.  I didn't do it, Jesus did.

Change takes time, but it is always worth it when I come out on the other side a little more of the person that Jesus wants me to be.