I Like My Nest Just the Way It Is

Both of our daughters are still at home with us.  And we couldn’t be happier about that.  But I know that sooner or later, I will have an empty nest.  Not happy about that prospect.

At all.

Sometimes I feel as if I’m living holding my breath, waiting for that change, that move away from what I’ve known for so long and loved…my full nest.

I’m sure many of you could tell me that life on the other side of raising children is just as great, with blessings unique to that empty nest phase of life.  But I’m just not ready.

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My girls have become not only my daughters but my very best friends as well.  We do so much together.  I don’t want anything to rock that boat.  To tip over my nest and empty it out.  Selfish…I know.

I feel like the character, Beatrice Hamilton, on the movie, The Inheritance, who said when speaking about change—

But right now, my family is facing a decision that has the potential to bring about changes that I don’t know how to welcome.

We need to decide whether or not to move thirty minutes away from where we currently live.

This would add an hour to my husband’s and our girls’ drives to and from work each day.  It’s doable.  We’ve done it before.

But this time, our daughters are old enough to possibly decide that it’s time to move out instead of face that added drive time.  And I would completely understand.  I would even “gladly” help them find a place and decorate and enjoy with them that new phase of their lives…although, it would not be easy.  Just contemplating it makes me sad.

But…life must go on.

And God willing, be just as good, even though in different ways.

Sometimes moving away from all that we have previously known as home can be scary.  We don’t know the future, the ramifications (spiritual and otherwise) of making that decision.  Should we go?  Or, should we stay?  What is God’s best for our family?

 

In our reading in Genesis this week, Jacob faced his own fears about moving.  He certainly wanted to see his beloved son Joseph again.  But was it God’s will for him to move his whole extended family to a country that God had before forbidden his own father, Isaac, from moving to?  (Genesis 26:2) 

Jacob also probably feared the prophecy God gave to his grandfather, Abraham, concerning a four-hundred-year period of slavery for his family in a foreign land.  He probably wondered, “Could that land be Egypt?  Will this move be the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophecy?”  (Genesis 15:13)

And besides these fears, there may have been the fear that his family would be drawn away by the pleasures and idolatry of Egypt.

All very valid fears…that caused Israel to seek the God of his father Isaac.  (Genesis 46:1)

Jacob knew he needed to stop and seek the Lord before going any further.  His fears caused him to know that he needed God’s direction and definite answers to his fears and his prayers.

God, knowing that Jacob had fears concerning this move, comforts and directs Jacob with these words—

And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt;  Genesis 46:3-4a

My family and I are still seeking God’s answer about our move.  So much could change for us that we want to be sure of God’s will.  We don’t want to make a decision, either to stay or to go, out of fear of the future.

How about you?  What fear might you be facing right now?

Take heart.  For sometimes it takes fear to gain faith.  

It is our fear, after all, that sends us, like Jacob, to “the author and finisher of our faith,” the Lord Jesus Christ.  (Hebrews 12:2)

 

Moving, whether from place to place or from one phase of life to another, can be intimidating and scary.  However, I know…the Lord will go with us into our future…just as He did with Jacob and his family.

 

Drawing nigh to Him,

Teresa

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT

Do you have an empty nest?  How did you cope with the transition?

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