Change. We change clothes daily. We change our schedules to meet demands. We change our attitudes when it’s hurting others. Change can be easy if it’s something we want to do. But not all change is easy.

I have found changing routines takes the most effort for me. If we have had a bad habit it takes commitment to change our normal. If we have ignored things, it is difficult to make ourselves see the need, much less resolve to do it. But…

Change is necessary for growth.

In marriage we have a benefit that those who live alone don’t. We have someone to help us see what we don’t see. And they encourage us to change those things we may not ever notice left to ourselves.

Today I’m thinking in very practical terms. We have lived in our home for going on 27 years. It isn’t a visibly cluttered home, but the need is there. Drawers that haven’t seen the light of day in years contain things we no longer need. Closets that once held our children’s clothes are now stacked with boxes of all kinds of things.

I am a sentimentalist. I can attach meaning to almost anything and find it difficult to get rid of things. I can’t tell you how many times my hand has hovered over a trash can not sure if I could throw something away–forever!

This is where I must once again talk to myself instead of listen to myself. I can make all kinds of excuses. My resolve must be to change how I’ve always been to embrace a new, less-cluttered home.

Change comes at a cost.

I must give my full commitment to embrace the change or it won’t last. It will become another resolution tossed on the floor of forgotten convictions. May it not be so this time!

What changes are you needing to make in your life? Your marriage? Your home? Set the stage for change by opening the curtain and letting others see your struggle.

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Intimacy Prompt: Ask your spouse in what ways they see a need for change in your life, their life or in your marriage? You may want to give them time to think about this before discussing it on your next date night.

Helpful Tip: Make a list of changes needed. Give yourself a reasonable deadline to finish. Plan a reward for completing your task.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:11 ESV