Everything in life runs in cycles, and endless ebb and flow of times, duties, joys, pains, love, and numbness. How often do we despise the season that we are in, rather than be thankful for the winter which will make the summer more enjoyable? How often do we throw away what's left of this season to jump into tomorrow's? As little girls we are eager to throw out our ribbons and bows for heels and makeup. As young men we let the bikes rust in the rain while we work on our first car in the garage long before we have our license. As youth we throw away our innocence for the thrill of a night, despising the season of simple purity for the new emotional bonds and responsiblities on the other side that God only intended us to be ready for when we were ready and willing to make the committment of marriage. Even as adults we constantly do this. As young parents we become exasperated with the season of constant care of babies, the diapers, the nursing, the loss of freedoms, forgetting how fleeting these precious moments are.
Our personal relationships run on the a constant cycle of seasons as well. Marriage, too, is full of changing seasons and the shifting sands of time. Everything changes, then changes again. Circumstances change, responsibilities change, priorities change, bodies change. So often we let the cold of a winter season unbond the glue that holds us together even though we are declared by God to be One Flesh. We must believe with everything in us that after the winter comes the spring, bringing with it its gentle rains and warming sun, thawing earth's lifeless form. The laws of God are immutable, and how much happier we would be if we would just listen and wait to hear them, then submit, not just to His authority, but His ultimate wisdom!
If only we could just obey God like the children that obey the Father who whistles his certain special whistle that means, "COME. CHILDREN. NOW!", and run as fast as their spindly legs can go straight to his side, dropping the toys, leaving the fort, forgetting the elusive frog. Perhaps the whistle meant that there was some danger and every child needed to be accounted for as soon as possible. Sometimes it was just a drill, to test our willingness to obey. Whatever the reason, we never once questioned it, we just ran. Would it have been better if we had questioned first, then obeyed if the reason seemed just to us? We all know how foolish it is for a child to be wise in his own eyes. Yet we fail to see how we are children of God, young and immature compared to Him. We feel justified in asking Why? before obeying, still relying on our own sense of good and bad before submitting or defying.
Well, I suppose I will get off my soap box now and get to my point. I just want to say that at times I am completely exasperated with the season I am in right now, but I am also thankful for it, and right now the best thing I can do for myself and my family is to embrace it. And so, I am embracing it fully!
1 comment:
I can relate Lisa! This is a tough season in our lives sometimes, because so much of our identity is bound up in our kids. But God has a reason for this new addition to your diapering years. For some divine reason, God needed this little one developing inside you to come into this world and be raised by caring parents like you and Colby. YOu've been honored with another job assignment from the King of kings, the most important job in the world is raising God-honoring children. Spending years changing diapers, and sleepless nights will be rewarded by spending eternity with saints you raised to be revolutionaries for God's coming Kingdom. That's where I find comfort when hormones are high, rest is too little, & patience is running out the door with my toddler.
Post a Comment