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The journey of a move is the process of learning how to Let Go, Start Over, and Move Ahead with your life. Our Monthly Challenge provides an inspiring quote and stepping stones to help encourage you during this journey. Will you accept our challenge? MONTHLY CHALLENGES Join the Just Moved! Community for free and read Years One, Two, and Three Challenge Archive (join now) Challenge 47 Let Go: It’s only natural to have expectations when you move. We anticipate a better job, a larger income potential, a bigger home, a different lifestyle – we all know the list of expectations well. Disappointment can slide us off the mountaintop of expectation very quickly unless our focus is Christ-centered and not on what we have or have not!
Start Today: Think about your expectations and what effect they would have on your happiness.
Move Forward: This week journal your thoughts about the specific expectations you have and why you think they will make you happy.
(adapted from My Journey: A Journal for Letting Go, Starting Over, and Moving Ahead with my Life after a Move, by Susan Miller. Learn more about this 52-week journal...)
Challenge 46 Let Go: Many times I am inclined to focus on what I don’t have, rather than focus on how blessed I am. I will choose to let go of any negative thoughts or feelings that keep me from seeing how God has blessed me.
Start Today: Today I will make a list of all the things I am thankful for in my life. I will tell at least one person what I am thankful for and how God has blessed me.
Move Forward: I will choose to live my life with a grateful heart from this day forward.
Challenge 45 Let Go: Are you disappointed in the circumstances of your move?
Start Today: Ask God to help you to focus on Him and not on the people and circumstances around you.
Move Forward: It’s time again to make a list. In one column write down the things that have been disappointing to you about your move. In the other column write down the blessings that are in your life. Include even the smallest of blessings. Keep writing until the blessing list is longer than the disappointment list. Read the blessing list every day and trust God with the other list.
Challenge 44 Let Go: Is anxiety and worry robbing you of enjoying each new day?
Start Today: Make a list of the things about which you are anxious.
Move Forward: From that list, make a new list of two columns: Things you can change; Things you can’t change. Offer the things you can’t change to God. Make a plan for the things you can change.
Challenge 43 Let Go: Are you anticipating a move and find that you fear the future? Have you made the move, but now lack courage to meet new people, get involved in a group where you know no one, or are intimidated by a city that is unfamiliar?
Start Today: Memorize Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Move Forward: Choose to make the first move toward making friends. People won’t come knocking at your door. Use this time for growth. Leave your comfort zone. Discover the woman God wants you to be.
Challenge 42 Let Go: Are you hemmed in by uncertainty, pressure to ‘measure up’, or the loss of identity that comes with a move? Start Today: Give yourself permission – freedom – to be the woman that God created you to be and to rest in the circumstances in which He has placed you. Move Forward: Make a list of your gifts, abilities, and strengths. Thank God for His workmanship in you and, if you have not found ways to use those abilities in your new community, choose to trust His timing and ask Him to reveal opportunities for you to offer your services. Challenge 41 Let Go: Parenting is exhausting, especially during a move. In your determination to get your children to bed as quickly as possible, are you putting off their desire to talk or snuggle with you? Start Today: When your family is experiencing a move, the children will handle the adjustments better if they are able to communicate their emotions, fears, and questions. They need to feel close to you and to feel the security that your attention and consistent love provides. The quiet of bedtime can sometimes be the best time for that communication and loving attention to occur. Move Forward: We all know that children will try to postpone their bedtime as much as possible. In order to allow for bedtime questions, conversation, and closeness, start the bedtime routine 15 to 30 minutes earlier. As tired as you may feel, view these opportunities as an important investment in your children’s emotional well being during an uncertain time. Challenge 40 Let Go: Are you exhausted from the preparations for your move or from having completed a move?
Start Over: Identify those tasks that are particularly exhausting or that you dread doing.
Move Ahead: Make a plan to tackle one or two of the most unpleasant tasks early in the day (or whenever you have the most energy) and reward yourself after their completion with a cup of coffee and a magazine or a walk around the block; whatever your favorite activity. Keep this break to 20 minutes or so and go on to the next task awaiting your attention. Remember to check these tasks off your list as you complete them and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment!
Challenge 39 Start Today: Cling to Christ. When the familiar supports of friends, family, jobs, church, and favorite places have been removed from your life, cling to Christ.
Move Ahead: Memorize John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” and Isaiah 43:18,19; "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Challenge 38
I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. --Philippians 3:14 (The Message) Let Go: Is your focus on the home you left behind? Start Today: A runner cannot win the race, let alone run the race if she is looking behind her. Her focus is forward and her eyes are on the finish line.
Yes, cherish the home and the people you left behind, but do not cling to them in a way that they absorb your focus. God has much in store for you in your new surroundings!
Move Forward: Be alert and be watching for doors that God is opening for you. It could appear in the conversation you have at the grocery store or at your child’s school, it could be in a request for volunteers at your church or community center, or it could be a smile and “hello” that you offer to someone else who looks lonely.
Have you been reluctant to change your driver’s license or paint rooms in your new home because they are acts of commitment to your new community? Do it! Start running forward into your future. God is at your side. No turning back.
Challenge 37 Let Go: Is the stress of your move having a negative impact on your marriage? Start Today: Pray about it. Remember, you can't change your husband, but God can! Move Forward: Love him unconditionally. No strings attached. Show it wih your eyes your smile, your touch. back to top
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