Seasons

The seasons are changing again. The evidence is everywhere. The grass is turning green again, the days are getting warmer, and the sun is setting later. I hear children playing outside in the evenings and smell the scent of hamburgers cooking on a grill. Spring is almost here (soon to be followed by Summer)! And if I had it my way, warm weather would last forever. I love this time of year. I almost feel nostalgic when I think about flip-flops, and watermelon, and the smell of chlorine and sunscreen, and summer days that seemed to last forever as a kid. Stephen is just the opposite. I am convinced that he would live in Antarctica if he could -- or at least anywhere that he wouldn't have to be hot all the time! But regardless of what either of us would prefer, we know that the seasons will continue to come and go, right on time, just as they always have.

The Bible talks about Seasons in Ecclesiastes 3 stating, "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."

There are so many different seasons of our lives as well. I would not be completely honest if I didn't confess that in various seasons of my life I have longed for the next stage of my life instead of being content in that moment. And then once I was in that new season, I often wondered why I didn't enjoy the unique things about that season and time in my life. I do that sometimes now. You know, the whole "if only I had known then what I know now..." I would have enjoyed uninterrupted sleep more, or quality time with my husband more, or going to the movies, or long showers, or dressing up, or lingering at the dinner table long after the meal is finished.

But as the seasons come and go, I know I will have those things again. Yes, I will have all of those things that seem so far away right now. But I won't have cheerios tucked in ever nook and cranny of the house, and diapers overflowing out of every trash can, and finger smudges on the windows, and goldfish under the sheets of my bed, and trains scattered throughout the living room. I won't have avocado wiped on my shirt, or torn pages in my new book, or a baby boy crying and clinging to my leg when I have to leave. Right now I am in the season of motherhood, and I am a young mother to a toddler boy. Many days are crazy, unpredictable, and physically demanding. And there are moments on certain days when I think "when he's just a little bit older..." because I feel like I don't have the energy to do the same tasks one more time, or I feel alone, or I feel like no one has been where I've been, and I hear the voice of the enemy whisper that "what you are doing doesn't really matter anyway." And it is in those moments that I have to stop and ask the Lord to give me joy and contentment in the season that I am in, because I know deep down that it does matter. It matters greatly. Because while it may just look like changing diapers, and fixing meals, and wiping off a dirty face and hands - I know that it's much more than that and that I am raising a little boy day by day that will one day be a man - a man that I pray loves God with all of his heart and serves Him all the days of his life. And just as "Rome wasn't built in a day," the call to motherhood requires patience and perseverance as we raise this little boy that has been entrusted to us. History tells me (you know, the almost 27 years of life experience that I have ;) -ha!) that when this season has passed that I will miss everything about it and my mother's heart already knows that I will.

So, today I am praying that God will help me to delight in this season of my life and praying that he will help you to be content in whatever the season that you find yourself in as well.