I love the story my friend Lora recently posted on facebook. She said that it was past her seven-year-old’s bedtime, but rather than drifting off to sleep, she heard him up, throwing an absolute fit.
When she ran in to find the cause for his hysterics, she learned that he was afraid he had lost something. What was it? His fortune.
He had stuffed the crumpled piece of paper from his fortune cookie into his jeans’ pocket after lunch, then absently tossed the jeans into the laundry at bedtime. It must have been the sound of the washing machine that alerted him to the potential threat. Now, he was crying and carrying on, just sure that his fortune was all soggy and destroyed.
Being the sweet mother that she is, Lora quickly ran down to the laundry room to see what could be done. There in the basket was the only pair of jeans that hadn’t fit into the load of laundry which was already sloshing around in sudsy water. The fortune laden jeans were on dry land!
She quickly fished out the little piece of paper, and read, “You will make a change for the better.”
“Let’s hope so!” she said to herself, with a chuckle.
I think Lora’s little boy is onto something here. There is great fortune found in ‘making a change for the better’. I read recently that most people more greatly regret the sins they’ve committed, rather than their sins of omission, in the short term. But far greater, in the long term, is their regret over the things they haven’t done. The changes they haven’t made.
What if someday, you could look back at 2013 as your year of change for the better? The year you stopped _________. Or the year you began __________. Or the year you finally __________. That would make ’13 as a year of great fortune, don’t you think?
My resolutions tend to disintegrate quicker than a slip of paper in the washing machine. The only true and lasting change (for the better) comes from yielding myself to God’s Spirit–letting Him say what needs to change, and letting Him provide the power to change.
In my own strength, I’m like a seven-year-old who yawns indifferently, and is lulled to sleep by the sound of the washing machine. But with God’s strength, I can leap out of bed with urgency, and pursue the great fortune of change!