TRANSITION & MOBILITY

Transition and Mobility. These seem to be words that sum up our life as a family. Growing up the British middle class cultural model around me was very much this: At 18 you finish school, maybe take a gap year, go to university and then travel and then get a job because getting married is a serious commitment and then it is time to settle down, get a house and start filling said house with children and things. I’m not saying that this is right or wrong, but that was pretty much the vibe at the time.

Particularly regarding marriage. ‘Marriage is serious and once you get married you kiss goodbye to freedom, independence, adventure and a carefree life.’

Thankfully, alongside the cultural model, there were a handful of life changing couples who crossed my path who showed me that this model was not a given, it is a choice. And their lives modelled that there was another choice for me. That after marriage there was only more fun, more adventure, great friendship, travel and life full of purpose and vision - which is what makes everyday feel carefree. I really honour those people, because without them I think the various assignments of my life would have felt heavy and surrounded with condemnation.

I don’t look down on a settled life at all. Settled meaning, geographically settled. I grew up in one house for my whole life and the first time I moved out was to move into my married home with my husband. I lived a settled life and there are many benefits. But for many of us we just don’t seem to called to, dealt that hand, or however you want to put it. We certainly don’t seem to have that. Mobility and Transition seem to be part of our assignment… and we love it! Within my settled life I always dreamed of travel, adventure, seeing the world and feeling like each day was on purpose. What I didn’t bank on is that I would get to do that with my best friend and a little troop of people that we made - but that is what we have started out doing.

We are value led people, there is nothing more important to us than making sure that our values guide and define our life and we want that our children are governed by strong moral values that stand the test of time and geography. For us, these are biblical, Kingdom values.

For us, the Word of God is the standard. Many might look at the bible as confining and rigid, but it is in the very consistency and stability of the Word that we are able to have a moveable family, built upon an immovable foundation.

For us, the bible defines our behaviour, the way we work out our marriage, the way we manage our money, the way we steward our things and the way we raise our children.

For me, I can’t see any other way of navigating the complexities of life and relationships without establishing these things first. Without them, I would constantly be tossed around on a sea of ever changing emotion, circumstance and the opinions of others.