Seasons Change

This post is by Jen Shultz.

We are hanging on the edge of an Indian Summer here in Oklahoma while other parts of the country start to see signs of fall.  These last few weeks of summer see quite a lot of commotion in my sleepy little town. Schools are gearing up to be back in session. Last minute trips are taken. Supply lists are distributed. The excitement of a new school year, football season, and all things pumpkin or apple create anticipation for the things to come. Kids being moved to college. Babies starting kindergarten. The last few harvests from the garden and the first few leaves start changing color. It is a season of change and it is not lost on me that this month’s focus here at Hello Mornings is about growth. 

It is not always true that change requires growth, but I will say in my experience it is more common than not. This is where the rubber meets the road and quite honestly, it is the place where many fail to be more than passive. At times in my life, I was included in that passive stance on growth in so many areas of my life. It took me years after falling ill to accept how much had changed in my life and how different my day to day needed to look. 

To avoid facing that, I set goals that made very little impact, but gave me a sense of worth. It is overwhelming to know things need to change and to not have a clue where to start. In some ways, I was still growing. It may have been passive growth or even just a little luck, but it was enough to convince me that I wasn’t stuck in an idea of who I needed to be. Spoiler alert, I was stuck indeed. 

It took a while to come to that realization and when I did, I understood that not only had my physical growth changed, but so had my mental and spiritual growth. It became apparent to me that I equated growth with success or success with growth. Any way you put that, my mind frame was in the wrong place. I was conquering things just to conquer them. There was no path or goal. I just needed to be able to say I did THIS today so I felt I was a value-added item in people’s lives. My interactions became transactional and I did not like how that made me feel. In a stunning moment of clarity, I realized that I needed to change the way I was looking at life. My mindset had already begun to shift and in what can only be described as divine intervention, I found the Hello Mornings community. 

It was then that I found their motto/three pronged approach, “God. Plan. Move.” To me, it seemed like a very reasonable place to start. It gave me structure where I had not realized I was longing for it. This three-pronged approach encouraged me to set goals for growth and not just goals as a means to an end. It took me from passively letting life throw me wherever these Oklahoma winds blew to standing in my purpose. I began to see a change in real time. I had a path forward and I could see the steps I needed to take to continue to add value FOR myself instead of worrying about adding value TO those around me (that happens organically, by the way). 

I had to change the way I looked at growth. The heart of the matter is that it cannot just be growth in general. Realistically, I needed a deeper dive. I needed to work on redefining what that word meant to me and looked like when applied in my life. I had to learn that the body, mind, and spirit are all connected and to actively seek progress in all three areas continuously and not just as a one time occurrence. It was my very own changing of seasons and with that I learned to understand that my growth mindset would guide me through each life’s ups and downs. 

It is work, friend. Oftentimes, it is exciting. Occasionally, it is challenging. Always, it is beautiful just like this season of life. Selah.

Jen is a small town, Oklahoma girl married to a superhero. She is a firm believer in grace, organization, and efficiency. She finds great satisfaction in taking broken items and giving them new life, likely because that is exactly what God did for her. Jen calls her family her greatest accomplishment and is loving watching it grow generationally. A natural born encourager and armchair warrior, she is learning to redefine her mission field and make the most of each day she is given. She has recently been promoted from breast cancer warrior to breast cancer survivor. She’s chronically ill and chronically positive—not necessarily in that order. She is learning to practice perseverance over perfection and longs for the day she gets to see her grandparents and Jesus’ face. Until then, she is just looking for Grace in the Grind.

Photo by Martin Martz on Unsplash