Transitions ~ By Angie Maldonado

School starts early here in South Georgia.  Seems like it gets earlier every year...August 5th this year.  We are homeschoolers, so we can be flexible, but it's kind of nice to stay on schedule with the local kids.  What bothers me, though, is the early start hinders that natural transition from summer to fall; from warm, carefree days to cool structured ones.  Doesn't it seem "normal" for fall to prompt that transition back to school-life?

Transitions. Life is packed with them.  How do you handle them?  More specifically....how do you handle them in your marriage?  There are plenty of major transitions in marriage, like the change from newlyweds to new mom and dad; from full-time parenting to empty-nesting.  And the list goes on.  But in between those biggies are a lot of smaller, yet very significant transitions.

How we handle them can greatly impact our marriages.  I can think of so many in my own marriage. One that stands out among others is our mid-life transition from the civilian world into the Army world.  Wow!  For those of you who haven't had experience with the military life, it is a whole other world.  I didn't handle it so well at first - quite resistant.  But, God graciously moved me in His direction.  He had a perfect plan and my husband saw it before I did.  Had I remained in my resistance, I would have missed out on the blessing of obedience to God in His prompting of our transition.

I was a woman who was happy with the status quo, and I liked control of that quo!  Transitions were rough and I simply liked to avoid them.  Well, I wasn't the only one aware of this.  God was, and He wanted to see me grow. So, He walked me through them. 

This is the key to the lesson I would like to share.  Most often, God's plans are full of transitions so we can grow.  James 4:13-15 quickly pops into my head, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow....Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"

In my flesh, I am kind of partial to verse 13 - the planning, the precision (the lack of transition).  But, in my spirit, I am learning to say, "If it is the Lord's will..." His Will will likely include many transitions.  He doesn't like us to get too comfortable where we are.  He likes for us to grow in faith and in character.

In my marriage, that means growth in my trust of and submission to my husband as the spiritual head of our home. It means exhibiting a gentle and quiet spirit about another Army move, when my flesh wants to cry out for more control and stability.  I learn that Christ and Christ alone is my stability.  He goes wherever I go, no matter the transition.  And when I submit to His will and my role as wife and mother in all our transitions, it is a blessing to my family and my Lord.

~ Angie Maldonado is a home schooling mom of two girls (ages 5 and 7) and an Army wife.  She and her family currently reside in Fort Benning, Georgia.  Her greatest goal in life is to leave a remarkable spiritual legacy to her two girls and to see them mature with hearts to serve the Lord.  She enjoys crafting, decorating, reading, and of course, writing.  Angie has experienced the renovating power of the Lord at work in her marriage, and considers it a great blessing to use what she has learned to help build other women in their faith.  She is awaiting publishing of her first book dedicated to encouraging women to let their lights shine for the Lord Jesus.