Seasons

I'm sure if you were asked the question, "what is your favorite season of the year?" you'd have a quick answer. Right? If I'd ask my dad that right now, he'd probably be a little torn in his decision because his favorite time of the year is Christmas. He also is very fond of mowing the grass and planting things, so he might say spring, also. Alabama summers are intolerably hot, so I have a feeling that summer would definitely not be his favorite season.

As for my favorite season /seasons, I love the late winter, early spring, and late fall. I can't make up my mind which one I like the best. If I lived in the north, I might have a different opinion.

That also means I have some seasons I don't like very well. One of the things I hate about the south are the excruciatingly hot summers. At times it's so unbearable that you can't stand to step your foot outside because the heat and humidity wrap you up so quickly, within seconds you look as though you just stepped out of the shower - being drenched with sweat. On the other hand, there's not a day my dad or my husband have ever had to shovel snow off the sidewalk or driveway either.....and I promise you they are not complaining about that.

We're not rich enough to be drifters in seasons.....so we have to take the heat to get the good winters. On the other hand, you in the north have to take the icy winters to have a decent summer.

That leads me to the point of my entire post. Seasons! Fortunately for us, summer doesn't last all year long. Thank GOD!! Someone very wise once told me, "the good thing or the bad thing about seasons is that they end. Some seasons you wish would stay forever while others you pray will end sooner than they are meant to."

You know life consists of seasons......all kinds! Life has always been this way, and always will be. That's a fact we just have to accept. Changes in seasons of life are the reason why the age old question exists..."Why do bad things happen to good people and why do good things happen to bad people?" Maybe later I'll write just about that question, but for now, I'm focused on seasons and I have a bit more to say about it.

It's on my mind because I would say that our lives as a family are in, and hopefully on the way out of, a season that we would like to see come to a close. A season of frustration, tears, anxiety, and helplessness. There are seasons that I don't like in life and would really prefer not to have to go through them, personally, but it's been determined since the beginning of time that these times would be building blocks to establish us and we know they're coming. If we had warning, the anxiety for what is to come might be too much for us, so we are not privileged to see beyond the veil of today. And as much as we might like to believe it's not, it IS for our benefit.

See, in THE manual for life, also known as the Bible, we were equipped with a knowledge of what to expect from daily life.....It goes like this.....

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiates 3: 1-11.

It would be really nice to just take all the seasons that are positive and forget about the bad. But attitudes, relationships, and personalities are sometimes molded into better things in the bad times. So, it would not be to my benefit to take out the bad times.

I really like the New Living Translation of the 11th verse of the passage I just typed. It goes like this:
"God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."

Several years ago, my mom and I attended a concert and we were talking to Janet Paschal afterwards. I asked her what the inspiration for a song was that she had written, which was one of my favorites of her writings. The name of it was, "If I'd Had My Way." She began to tell us that the inspiration came from an event in her life where she had a broken engagement. She said it had broken her heart so badly and one day as she boarded a plane she began to list the things to God that she would have done differently had she been in charge of the situation. She said, "I began to tell God, if I'd have had my way...I'd have done this, this, and this." She said, "as I began listing God all these things, He quietly reminded me that His thoughts are not my thoughts and His ways are MUCH higher than mine." She said, "I became a broken vessel before him realizing how selfish I was in my own ways that it never occurred to me that His plan for me was better than what I ever wanted for myself."

After that, she penned the words that said, "If I'd had my way, I might have been wading through the rivers, when you wanted me to walk upon the sea....If I'd had my way, and all of my wants, and whims, and wishes, you knew how weak, how shallow I would be.....I trust Your wisdom over mine. Cause You've proven over time, that in my narrow way of seeing things, I leave the BEST behind sometimes... I might not have stayed as close if I'd had my way."

I've never forgotten that conversation we had that day. It's helped me in my life more than once....because believe me, there's been more than one time in my life that I did NOT see things the same way God saw them. And I assure you, when you like to FIX things the way I do, it's not always easy to keep your opinion to yourself about the matter. Learning to trust has been an ordeal in and of itself.

So, painfully, I've learned.....I'll take the good seasons with the bad seasons. The whole picture has not been painted yet of my life. Since His ways are perfect, and his abilities are flawless, at times when seasons are good, I'll thank Him. When they are not so good, I'll trust Him, still. After all, it's just a season......and the good thing about seasons is that they end!!