Seasons

Eccl 3:1-8 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Life is about change. There are many seasons to life. There are seasons as in Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. There are other types of seasons as well. There are the years that you are young and in training. Then the years where you are a true helper to your parents. Maybe you are a young married woman. A precious season comes with babies. The first years are harder as you have little ones with no big ones to help. Then the older ones grow up and you find new seasons as you parent through new stages. Then a child leaves home to start their own home. Loved ones go on to heaven before you.

Sometimes change is hard even when it is good change. It can stretch you and grow you. It can leave an emptiness or an ache. I am trying to figure out this season of my life. I still long for more children but realize that stage may be over for me. I see and hear of other couples adopting or having babies. I am thrilled for them, but it creates longings within me. We are headed into October. It was in October that I lost my Mom. I seem to miss her more this time of year, so the ache increases. October is also a wonderful reminder. Joshua and Brittany celebrate their first year of marriage.

I have been very melancholy these last weeks. The garden is all but gone. We are almost done with the harvest and the putting away for the winter. We still need lots of wood since that is what we heat our house with. There were a few things that did not get done that I really wanted to do. We need to get things ready for the winter cold and snows that will come.

Change can lead you down wrong paths if you let it. In the new Bible study we are doing, God is reminding me again that I need to live deliberately. I need to give thought to what I am doing and why. If I live on auto-pilot or default, it is easy to not do the right thing. Do you MAKE TIME for your quiet time with God? Do you take the time to listen to a friend and respond to what they say, or are you waiting with the next thing YOU want to say? Have you ever talked with someone and they are so excited about every little thing going in their life, but when you share about yours, they don't even respond because they are thinking of the next thing they will share? I don't want to be that way, so I need to be deliberate in my actions. I need to be willing to not share some of my life and let them share theirs and rejoice or mourn with them. Have you ever shared something very meaningful and hurtful to you and someone's response is... "I'm sorry. Did you hear about the new..."? We are all caught up in what goes on in our own lives. To be "other's minded" means that I need to be deliberate in my listening and deliberate in keeping my own mouth shut.

Another way for me to live deliberately is to look at the seasons... the ones that are over, the one that I am in and the ones to come and realize that they are by God's design. I need to be deliberate to thank the Lord for each season and enjoy it or grow through it and learn from it. I said above that change can lead you down a wrong path. I could sit and be down in the dumps because I did not get the twelve children I wanted. Instead I need to be grateful that God gave me a son. Again, I need to be deliberate. I don't always understand God's ways, but why should that surprise me. He has orchestrated my life and the things in it to be the "best" for me. I don't even begin to understand all that He has done or allowed or brought into my life and why. I just need to trust and believe in Him. Another thing we just went over in this Bible study is that this world is not our home. Our home is with God. We are just here for a short time and we need to be looking forward to heaven. I truly am looking forward to that day. He has given us a map on this journey on earth. It is called the Bible. It gives us all we need. God through His Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truths and treasures that are hidden in it. However, we have to have a heart that truly desires this, longs for it and takes the time to read it, meditate on it and memorize it.

Too often we get caught up in life's daily tasks. You get up fix breakfast for the family, get your husband off to work, homeschool the children, fix lunch, think about what to thaw for dinner, music lessons, sports practice or the games, what you will do this weekend, whose birthday is coming up and do I have a card or gift, do the sheets need washed, how much laundry is there to be done, did I write down on the grocery list that we are out of that, etc. We need to pray for our husbands and our children. We need to ask God what He would like for our family to do this weekend. Is there someone who has a need we can fill? I don't think it is wrong to do fun things together as a family. I am talking about deliberately looking for what God has for us to do instead of just living life as it comes. I need to remind myself of this often.

We need to encourage one another daily. We need each other.

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.