About the Author

Kristen Strong, author of Back Roads to Belonging and Girl Meets Change, writes as a friend offering meaningful encouragement for each season of life so you can see it with hope instead of worry. She and her US Air Force veteran husband, David, have three children and live in Colorado...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
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(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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Comments

  1. Kristen,
    Sometimes when God brings change into my life…I am too quick to jump on the horse and say, “Okay, God let’s get going!” I’m ready to dive in and move forward and in the meantime God is saying, “Hold on there little one…not so fast.” I’m not long on patience. Change, waiting, pausing, are all in God’s vernacular to mold us and change us into the image of Christ. Lord, give me patience to go with God’s plan and not forge ahead with my own. Thanks Kristen!
    Blessings sweet friend,
    Bev

    • Patience and I aren’t always simpatico, so your prayer is my own. Thank you for your words here, Bev. xo

  2. Thank you. Winter. Foreclosure or sale. Knowing where He’s sending us. Not knowing the in between parts. Waiting for my first baby girl to see her husband’s last breath, while i’m living six hours away with high needs kids in the house. I know something about waiting.

    • Oh my, yes you do. You know the hard, excruciating wait. May today bring you tangible hope in a way that speaks directly to your circumstances and your heart, dear one. That’s what I’m praying right now. So much love to you.

  3. Ah, you touched on a very real aspect of my behavior: “Help me forgive myself and others whose poor decisions led me here. Help me refuse to hit the play button on old history.” Living in regret, and letting that regret affect my interactions with others and my relationships is not living in the gospel. Thank you so much for this reminder. xo

    • It’s a hard thing, isn’t it Christan? For me, it’s only through prayer that I can make it happen. Thank *you* for your good words here.

  4. Really struggling with wanting change to happen in my life for good. So many years praying for a husband to love and be loved and do life with. It’s so hard to feel like I won’t get to the end of this year and all my circumstances just be the same. I’m tired and defeated.

    • Louise, I can hear the sadness in your words, and I’m just so sorry. I don’t know what the end of this year will bring you, but I know that God is close to you, even as the view you hope to see is far away. I’m praying the above prayer out loud for you right now. May God provide you today with a fresh sense of His follow through. *You* are wildly loved, Louise.

    • Oh Sister, I’m right here with you. Praying for your heart’s desire even as I’m asking (yet again) for the same…

      • Oh KC, Ive only just seen this. Thank you for standing with me. Its horrible isnt it. Praying for you too xx

  5. Thank you, thank you! My season of waiting has been so very long. Your words let me know that God has heard my heart’s cries. Thank you and Praise God!!

  6. Just signed up for the change challenge. A bit late. Wanted you to know Dayspring says it’s out of stock with the book.

  7. Oh my stars, the imagery you bring with not coming out of the dressing room…YES. Thank you for that!

  8. This captures it all, Kristen: “May I sit in Your presence, stand on Your promises, and move in Your sacred love.” This is my prayer, that I slow to sit, be strengthened by His Word and step out in the Love that leads me. I’m putting this on my fridge to remind me. Thank you.

  9. Kristen, I loved your prayer. Being in a time of waiting for change can be a challenging place to be. Your prayer is so encouraging. I’m learning to trust and choose contentment in the waiting.

    And this? “As I wait in this long middle between what I see and what I hope to see, may I be a time-user and not a time-waster. May I pause to count the ways You show up for me day after day after day.” This spoke to me right where I am. I want to be a time-user, not a time-waster. Such wise words here. Thank you, Kristen.

    P.S. I love Colorado winters. 🙂 There’s always the hope of spring. 😉

  10. Man am I sick of waiting what I am even more disgusted with is about how gods trials harm lives and cause unecessary drama
    !

    • Joanna,

      I’m so sorry that you feel this way and pray that you can see things in a different light.

      Penny

      • Joanna,

        I feel badly for you and just wanted to help you to try to understand, God doesn’t create unnecessary drama. The drama creates itself with help from us. But He is there for us when the drama unfolds. He has been there for me more times than I can count and I know this because there is no way I could of made it on my own. He is there for you and will carry you through.

        Penny

    • Joanna, I can tell you’re straight up mad, and I’m sure you have good reason to be. I’m so so, sorry for what you’re enduring right now. I don’t know what your situation entails, but I do know Jesus stands close by, wanting to take all that’s burdening you. I know He loves you like crazy and wants to ease your burdens.

      I’m praying now that you feel His presence like never before. I’m praying God sends you people intent on loving you well, people who leave the drama behind. And I’m praying you know in the hurting places how wildly loved you are.

      Thanks for really sharing in the realest of ways here, Joanna. So much love…

  11. Kristen,

    Thank-you for this prayer, what a sweet way to start off this day.
    I have found change can be hard, but sometimes so was not changing. Now I’m trying harder to focus on the present moment, enjoying it while it lasts. I think that sometimes the Lord wants us to hold still. And when we don’t know what it is we’re supposed to change maybe it’s His way of saying,”Everything is fine the way it is.”…Even if to us it seems hard.

    Take Care everyone,

    penny

  12. I needed that! ♡
    I’m still mourning and hurting over the unwanted changes in my life 4 years ago (exhusbands infidelity and the resulting loss of my marriage, home and job), and the fear and lack of faith for my future.
    I have 2 months to get a job, vehicle and find a place to live.
    I’m reading “Girl Meets Change” now, currently in chapter 3. And I’m loving it.
    Blessings to you ~♡
    Lela

  13. Kristen,
    I dig in my heels to change. I want “all of my ducks to be in a row.” Everything must be planned and follow the correct order – so says my OCD, Perfectionist tendencies. I had gotten to the point of seriously needing and wanting change and just as seriously working towards it. A very difficult proposition for someone entrenched in a rut, and a hard core “preservationist” (AKA almost a hoarder). Your prayer – many lines of it – was mine. In August, my father passed away, and one part of the rut chain was broken. I continued working on my attitude and striving towards change in all of my life. In November, I realized I just couldn’t do it any more and I could no longer discern what was truly keepable and what should be tossed. Now, in 2016, all of my New Year’s resolutions (past and would-be present) became facts instead of resolutions. You see, God took care of ALL my “to do” and “to change” list on December 26th with an F-4 tornado. Even my attitude. It has been amazing as I see God in everything around me along with the peace that passes all understanding in me, in the constant movement that drives me crazy, in the displacement, in the new friends. I see God in the way so much of my house and “stuff” were preserved in the damage when others around me were totally destroyed, even in the timing that day. My longing for change has been given to me as a gift in a difficult way, but I can truly truly say: it is well. That is even the better gift: knowing for a fact that “it is well.”

  14. Thanks Kristen, Thank you for this message and prayer. I am in a dark hole in my relationship and I need God to do a miracle. My husband and I always seem to be on opposing sides, rarely in agreement. This is not the life I want and I feel warn out going around the same mountain. We are so unequally matched or even unequally yoked in so many ways. I wanted a better life for my children than what I had growing up with my parents. Actually I wanted a better life for myself too.
    I have prayed and had counseling and I feel in myself I have just given up And I’m just enduring for the kids. I read all the time people refer to their husband as their best friend. I don’t have that, there is no intimacy. It’s like having a flat mate, except I am reliant on him for my very existence as I have no source of income as I am a stay at homewife. Please pray I feel trapped…