A few days before Thanksgiving two children ages 13 and 3 instantly became orphans. Their parents were killed in a traffic accident in Polk County, Fl.

As we begin the new year, the month we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., and commence the sixth year of the presidency of the first black man, we must deal with changes. All of the above incidents are seismic shifts in the lives of individuals, the culture and the country.

Change, albeit uncomfortable and inconvenient, is inevitable. Ready, willing or able change is coming and like it or not we must adjust our attitude or be assigned to the dust bin of history. It is what it is.

As God told Moses, I am that I am. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not here, we are living for better or worse in the now and we must adapt accordingly.

As the new year unfolds before you and circumstances change in front of you, remember the following along the journey of life.

There is a difference between influence and determination. Your background may influence you to act and react a certain way but it may not determine your destiny. Change, as outlined above, can be unpleasant but the loss of both parents does not automatically assume you will become a broken adult.

The negative influences may always be there but how your life turns out ultimately resides in your own hands. And in this undertaking you have a loving Savior who is imploring you to be born again so that he can do a new thing with a new creature in the newness of life as he urges to move from faith to faith, strength to strength, victory to victory and from glory to glory. He promises to hold your hand and be with you as you travel a way that you have never passed before to a new normal in this new year.

And one day, “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:50-52)

V. Knowles is a husband and father with an interest in penning issues that serve to uplift mankind. He melds his love for Classic literature, The Bible and pop culture - as sordid as it may be - into highly relatable columns of truth, faith and justice. Hence the name: Just Thinking. If he's not buried in a book or penning his next column, you may find him pinned to his sectional watching a good old Country and Western flick.