It is the C word....

One Word. Can one word really define you for a year? Our mission president gave us the idea of choosing one word to focus on this year to help us become better. It came from a program already established by someone that I do not remember, but it is great! So through prayer and thought, I have chosen the word change. That is what I want to focus on this next year. Change. Continual change. Marvin J. Ashton said once "There is nothing so unchanging, so inevitable as change itself." What a great word to focus on! It is inevitable so I might as well use it to it's fullest.
I was thinking today about change in the terms of God. We know that God is an unchangeable being. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. I realized that God cannot change so we can have the potential to change. If he was constantly changing on us we would have no direction or goal to aspire to. Instead, He remains the same and asks us to change to become like Him. What an incredible gift.
I remember when I was growing up and the rules that were established in my house. We were simply asked to not do certain things and to do other things. My parents were very good about not changing those rules. This gave me a clear choice to choose between. It gave me the ability to freely exercise my agency. I am so grateful for those chances they gave me choose and thereby to change.
While change is hard it is also the only way to ever become truly happy and like our Savior. C.S Lewis once said

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace”

I know that God is making us into the eternal beings we were designed to be. Let Him change you.