how do you prepare?

As my move date gets closer and closer, one question becomes increasingly ever present in my mind and on my heart- how do I really prepare to move?

I mean, I know how to prepare for some things- like the Greek placement test that I unfortunately have to take. I just cram for hours every day like I have done today. Seriously? I thought Greek was over.

I know how to prepare physically- I just clean and pack. (Although it is a good thing few of you see my room or you might question whether I actually know how to do this or not.)

But the reality is, I don't know how to prepare emotionally and relationally for such a transition. Honestly, I have never really done it. I went to college with 20 friends from high school, and it was what everyone in my world was doing at the time. Now it is just me. Most everyone I know (except my sweet college girls) is staying here. It's just me that is moving on. How am I supposed to prepare for this? How am I supposed to handle these next few weeks?

How to I prepare my heart to be somewhere else and yet still be fully here? How do I spend my time with the people I will see in these next two weeks? How do I say goodbye to people who are in my everyday life, who have been my life,- my closest friends, my closest girls, my church, my family (I don't even want to go there).

The reality is that right now, I feel like I am in such a weird place- excited to go, really sad to leave, unsure of what the future looks like, unsure of what these next days will and should look like. I want to be intentional. I want to use my time, my conversations in the very best, most beneficial, most life giving (both to me and to others) way possible. But I honestly don't know how.

I would so covet your prayers- for the Lord to really guard and guide my heart in this transition. That he will show me what to do and how to live in these next few days, especially how to be with those I know and love the most. And I would covet any thoughts, any advice you may have.

What has been of great comfort to me in all of this has been the glorious reality that although this is maybe the biggest change of my life- my God who is bigger, above it, and in the midst of it- doesn't, will not, actually cannot change. He is the same- yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is ever present in every way both in Dallas and in St. Louis. His covenant promises to me have been sealed up in Christ, and I know, I can trust, and rest in the reality that he will be my God, I will be his, and he will be with me- today, and tomorrow, and in all the days to come.

Hallelujah!!

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father

There is no shadow of turning with thee

Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!