A godly Response to "Differentness" or How-Will-We-Make-It-On-The-Road-For-Two-Months

I talked with my counselor yesterday about "Differentness". What is "Different" is not wrong, it's just different.

We talked about how being out of our house, our beds, our stable environment for over two months would put our family in a lot of stressful, "different" situations.

He said that most people feel uncomfortable when they are confronted with new things; when they are in a new environment; when interacting with people, places (etc.) that are different than they are.

He said that differentness gives us what, he calls, an "Icky Feeling." Most of us, when confronted with differentness move towards blaming the different thing, the context, the person for their icky feelings. They look outward; they get angry and blame the different thing for their icky feelings. They become a "judge" of their context. But, when they do this, they are not acting mature. They are not acting like an adult; they haven't learned to deal with differentness. They are reverting back to a coping and avoidance mechanism.

He challenged me to be aware of this in myself and family. He said that this trip was a great opportunity to look at our own hearts, to look inward. Why do I feel Icky? What's going on inside my heart.

Awareness of the Ickiness in the heart, and of the less mature ways of coping, he said, is the first step toward maturing. If I can learn to admit my weakness, and struggle through the tensions that come with being on the road with a family of six in a foreign country and many different beds, etc., then God will give me grace, make me strong to stay in the long pilgrimage we have before us.