18 Mar Partnering through Change

Our family has experienced many changes recently. My husband has a new job in a new career. Our family has a new house in a new city. As I have partnered with my husband through these changes, one of the challenges I have faced is to be active and intentional.

This story really begins several years ago when it became clear to us that God was calling my husband to a new career. We knew that much, but we did not yet know what that career might be. My husband found himself on a journey to discover who God had created him to be and what work God had created him to do. He has many wonderful talents and abilities, and this was his search to understand how they all fit together. There were no easy answers. We had to trust God as He revealed each detail step by step.

“I had to put aside my fears for what these changes might mean to me and trust God with the process.”

Even though this journey was not about me, I could not be passive in the quest. I had to put aside my fears for what these changes might mean to me and trust God with the process. I had to choose to be who my husband needed me to be. He needed reassurance of my respect and love as he grappled with an issue that is so near to the heart of how a man defines himself. I can remember many times simply reminding him that I was for him and with him no matter where the journey might lead.

Besides my active support, my husband needed my intentional input as God gradually revealed the what, when, and where of a new career and our future. We shared the journey together. We prayed together. We trusted together. We sought council from our community together. There were hours of discussion between us. I had to give my opinion without succumbing to temptation to pressure my husband. I wanted him to discern God’s will for his life, not my will for his life. Sometimes I asked probing questions. Sometimes God called me to encourage him. Sometimes we just cried together in frustration.

Now the journey has led us here to a new place with new changes. These changes provide new opportunities to partner with my husband as we together embrace the adventure God has for us. So what about you? How is God calling you to actively and intentionally partner through change?

– Michelle Maenche