Seasons

 Life is a funny thing isn't it.

The the rains come, the sun blazes, the leaf turns, the wind blows closing us in.

Seasons. Faithful seasons, always coming. Always going. We look to them to tell us what to wear, what to do and where to go. They predictably determine our path of unpredictability. Life.

As I was unloading the dishwasher earlier I was thinking about the seasons of life. How things change and how some things never change.

I placed cups onto the counter. Pots into cabinet.

It had been several weeks since I had actually unloaded the dishwasher. That's not my job anymore. Hmm, a new season. A season of delegating and reaping the benefits of having growing children.

I placed kid cups and kid bowls in the lower cabinet and saw a lonely sippy cup top lying at the bottom of a basket. Where was it's match? It didn't really matter anyway. The season for sippy cups has faded away as spring seems to, all too quickly.

I thought of the seasons that have already come in my life. The teenage season was by far the longest for me. Constant change. Bodily. Emotionally. Friendships. School. Not wanting to grow up. Not growing up fast enough.

Then college. A short season. Just one year. And I couldn't wait for the next season of my life. I was in love and I wanted to be married. And that whole time of waiting was miserable for me. I was impatient. But learned so much being apart from family and all the other parts of  my life I so easily depended on. I learned so much about my faith, about Who God was to me and who I was to Him. The people that I met, some are still my closest friends to this day. It was a good season, challenging, but sooo good.

Then the being married season. Learning to live with another person, giving some taking some, compromise. Learning to cook and fold towels the right way. Learning I needed God more than I ever previously imagined.

And then the baby season. A lot of it passed by in a hazy blur. After the 3rd came, only 37 months after the first, I went into survival mode. And it was hard not to want things to go by a little faster and get a little easier and less physically demanding. Oh I was tired. And it seemed like that season of diapers and nightly feedings and temper tantrums and spankings and pacies and sippy cups would never end... but how quickly it went by and I wish I remembered more.

I see now how quickly. And I wonder how it went by so fast.

There have been ministry seasons, pouring out into the lives of others, scared to death and trusting so hard. It seems like those are the seasons that come and go the most frequent, constantly changing with my constantly changing life. But it's ok, because I know that no matter where I am in life, eventually it will change, so I might as well enjoy where I am today.

And as I placed all of the silverware in it's drawer I thought of the season I am in now... 

This is a season of teaching and instructing, play dates and prayer groups, tickle fests and bigger laughter, delegating and chores, praying fiercely for the souls of my children... wondering if I'm doing enough.

So many seasons. So much change in such a short period of time. Some of them felt as though they would never end and life would never again be 'normal'. But they did end and I even miss them, well at least parts of them.

Sometimes it's hard saying good-bye, sometimes it's hard saying hello. Thankfully our God is an immutable God, never changing, always the same yesterday, today and forever. Praise be to God.