“Outen the light,” was a phrase, among many, I heard my mother use often.  Her parents were from the Pennsylvania Dutch area and these twists on English were common in her family, as in mine, during my childhood.  (FYI it means “turn off the light”).   By the time my own children came along, I had moved to a very Southern quaint town, St. Augustine.  Quickly, I adapted to “y’all” and many more colloquialisms of the area and “outen the light” had by then disappeared from my conversations.

Interesting how jobs change, families relocate across the US, some even to other countries.  Adapting to new jobs, homes, new schools, languages, new nuances of the community, is just part of life for so many of us.

Bible stories show this struggle with adapting and adjusting.  The Israelites wandering in the desert, given new commandments to follow, looking for the promised land and they were grumbling and complaining for 40 years. Their adjustment took quite some time.

Not a fan of the current phrase circulating “new normal” (pandemic 2020) as I’m not sure there is a “normal.” I do believe God leads us and is ever with us as our world, our neighborhood, our family, our inner being changes. Can we adapt to the changes, masks or no masks, school or virtual school, vaccine or no vaccine etc? According to Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”  I no longer, “outen the light,” rarely do I use “Y’all.”  May we adapt to the changes presented to us in this life and know that a God who loves us unconditionally will outen the lights as necessary and be a source of strength for all of y’all.

Jill