We have had a beautiful day today.  A perfect spring day with plenty of sunshine and a nice breeze that just begged you to come outside.  It’s a nice change of pace after a long winter.

I have a friend that lives in Boston…talk about a winter!  It was brutal. In Colorado they got snow last week.  Snow for spring break…..not very nice.  The eternal winter of 2015.

I’m married to a Northern boy who hates the winter so he believes the Southern States of America are indeed God’s promised land. As he should! He still is not a fan of okra or grits, but those things are a small price to pay for all of our Southern charm and hospitality.

But even for SC we had a pretty cold winter by our standards. In the middle of this winter my youngest 2 girls started asking when they could go swimming. These are the same girls who wanted to wear their flip flops when we had an ice storm.

I’m like: “Girls – it’s 22 degrees outside. Nobody is going swimming”.

“But why?”

“Because you will freeze. You’ll turn into a popsicle. Even if there were a pool with water in it, it would all be frozen”.

“But I want to.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if that’s all it took for us to get what we want? A simple, “But, I want to”. But that’s not how it works. I would like to take a hot shower in peace, but that’s not going to happen until all my kids are away at college.

So I say to my girls, “We don’t always get what we want. You will have to WAIT until summer.”

Swimming in the winter is an unreasonable thing, yet their “But I Want To” attitude gets totally in the way of reason.

Just like the weather has seasons, so do our lives. Some seasons seem to be a lot longer than others and the waiting for the next one is burdensome. Some seasons, like the winter in Boston, can be down right brutal. Some seasons, like the winter in Colorado, seem to never end. But some seasons, like spring, like the day we’ve had today, bring a nice change. They are pleasant and enjoyable.

Where are you today in your personal life. In your work or marriage or family. With your relationship with God or others. What season are you in? Maybe it’s a pleasant one. Maybe it’s a tough one. Maybe you’re like my girls , living is a season that you don’t want to be in and ready for it to be over.

In the decade between my 30^th and 40^th birthday I was pregnant 6 times and gave birth to 5 children. It was an intense season. My oldest 3 are now 14, 12, & 10. We’re entering a new season of parenting. The tween and teenage years are here regardless of whether we are ready or not. My youngest starts K5 in the fall which means we are done with some seasons of parenting (Good bye diapers and potty training.  I’m not sad to see you go!)  Life is continually changing.

You life is continually changing.  Where are you?

• Newly retired, trying to figure out what your new normal is.
• You’ve lost a spouse, alone for the first time in your life.
• Empty-nester
• In high-school or college and about to turn the corner into the work force.
• A stay at home mom whose days are spent with little people, tired all the time and would love to talk to another adult!

There’s all sorts of things that can bring about a season change in your life. And sometimes very suddenly.

• Job Loss or Job Change
• Divorce
• Illness or Diagnosis
• A move
• A loss of loved one
• Marriage or pregnancy

Some of you are in some interesting seasons. Some happy seasons. Even happy ones can be challenging. New marriages, jobs, houses and babies are a wonderful blessing. They are a very pleasant season, but still a lot to process.

For those of you in pleasant seasons………….Enjoy it!  I’m so very happy for you. But we all know seasons change.  They can be good, bad or ugly.  So take a look at what the scripture has to say to you for when you need it. For those of you living in a season you wished you weren’t living in, I hope to encourage you in the following posts.  Be sure to read tomorrow as I share a few verses everyone knows.  Even if you’re not a church go-er or read your Bible, you have probably heard these verses on Oldie’s Radio.  They were set to music a few decades back and taken word for word from Ecclesiastes 3.

Looking forward to sharing with you tomorrow about surviving….and thriving in whatever season you might be living through.

 

Photo credit: Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 43 Million views) on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC