{"id":1838,"date":"2011-10-11T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-11T05:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2011-10-10T21:28:51","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T01:28:51","slug":"youve-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html","title":{"rendered":"You’ve changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several years ago, a friend told me that she had seen lots of changes in me over the years. \u00a0Though she didn’t really mean it to be a compliment, I took it that way. \u00a0“You aren’t nearly as serious as you used to be,” she said. \u00a0“Before you always had an answer to every question. \u00a0Now you seem to merely sit and listen.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In reality, I hope her assessment of me is correct. \u00a0In her first observation, there was a time that I took myself very seriously–much too seriously. \u00a0The root of that seriousness was pride. \u00a0While I would’ve never admitted it, especially to myself, I thought I had obtained a bit of an inside track with God. \u00a0Therefore, my friends had to be pretty fortunate to know me. \u00a0That impression of myself was killed quickly by a dose of reality and it’s a good thing.<\/p>\n

Second, it’s also true that I felt it was my obligation to give people an answer when I was approached with a problem or concern. \u00a0I learned from a good friend–who dared to be honest with me–that most of the time, it was prudent to listen and keep my great advice and wisdom to myself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Much of what I’ve learned has been through adversity and trouble. \u00a0Facing personal and financial problems taught me humility and scraped away a lot of self-assurance. \u00a0Now, I happily admit that I don’t know as much as I did when I was 30 years old. \u00a0Additionally, I look into the visage of humility each day as I face Special Gathering members who are mentally challenged. \u00a0We are the only disability that has become the brunt of jokes and slurs. \u00a0Even people in powerful positions have used the “R” word to denigrate others.<\/p>\n

It has been said that we can learn humility voluntarily or involuntarily. \u00a0It’s much easier to learn it voluntarily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several years ago, a friend told me that she had seen lots of changes in me over the years. \u00a0Though she didn’t really mean it to be a compliment, I took it that way. \u00a0“You aren’t nearly as serious as you used to be,” she said. \u00a0“Before you always had an answer to every question.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,287,186,49,8,4,41],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,715,701,689,6,700],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faiths","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nYou've changed - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You've changed - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Several years ago, a friend told me that she had seen lots of changes in me over the years. \u00a0Though she didn’t really mean it to be a compliment, I took it that way. \u00a0“You aren’t nearly as serious as you used to be,” she said. \u00a0“Before you always had an answer to every question.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-11T05:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-11T01:28:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/0901px-laughing-l-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"You've changed - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"You've changed - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"Several years ago, a friend told me that she had seen lots of changes in me over the years. \u00a0Though she didn’t really mean it to be a compliment, I took it that way. \u00a0“You aren’t nearly as serious as you used to be,” she said. \u00a0“Before you always had an answer to every question.…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-10-11T05:00:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-11T01:28:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/0901px-laughing-l-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html","name":"You've changed - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/0901px-laughing-l-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-10-11T05:00:09+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-11T01:28:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/0901px-laughing-l-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/10\/0901px-laughing-l-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/10\/youve-changed.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"You’ve changed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1840,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions\/1840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}