Hi y'all! It's been a while since I posted anything new. You know how it goes, so many things seem to make demands on our time - kids, work, school, laundry, housework, homework, cooking, cleaning, shopping, slopping the hogs, milking the cows, herding the cats - you get the picture... So it has gone in the house of madness, aka my home. But summer is in sight, which brings with it a whole new set of challenges, but most of them seem easier to handle when I don't have to rise before dawn cracks. Mumbles graduates in just about a week or so and suddenly, I find myself with more kids out of school than in school. How in the world did that happen?! I feel pretty old about now especially since I found myself, in all honesty, saying yesterday "Where did the time go? It seems only yesterday...."
There are always seasons in life and so it is that I find myself heading into a new one....again. It's a good thing, though, this new season thing. Everybody has them, the real question is - What are you going to learn from it? There are a couple of things I learned during this past season of life. If you go off on vacation and you leave the thermostat in the house set at 45 degrees, all of your tropical fish will be dead when you return (thanks, honey). If you leave the window open, you know, the one without a screen over the garage, the one the SECOND FLOOR, the stupid cat is going to fall out of it (he's fine! don't send me mean emails, it wasn't my fault!). If the 4yr old next door comes over to play and the mom knows but the dad doesn't know and then the mom leaves to run errands without telling the dad where the 4 yr old is, then when the cops come, you will be questioned as a suspect in a kidnapping (true story, I can cross that off my bucket list!). I also learned that if you depend on your teenagers to pick up their little brother, at one point, someone is going to forget, leaving him stranded at the school until they call multiple people and finally reach someone just as they are about to call child protective services. I learned if you knock a two liter of soda off the kitchen counter you will get a volcano which will spray Dr. Pepper into every nook and cranny on the lower floor of your house. So you see, as this season of having multiple smelly, creative, nasty, adventurous, loving, dirty, rowdy, hyper-active boys is winding down I have learned many things. I'm now an expert in drywall repair. I can bandage a knee, pull a loose tooth, make a mean pb&j, pack a lunch, help with homework and make a pot of coffee all at the same time, and usually before breakfast.
There are seasons in our walk with our heavenly Father as well. Sometimes it's spring and all is new and bright and beautiful and then sometimes, it's summer and the heat sucks the strength out of you. Then it's fall with it's cool refreshing but inevitably, that leads into the cold, deadness of winter. And yet, each of these seasons has something wonderful about it. Without the contrast of winter, we could hardly appreciate the newness of spring. So it is as we grow in the things of the spirit. There are seasons of being so aware of His closeness that we expect to see him standing there if we can only turn around quick enough, and then, there are the other times. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones no one likes to admit happen in the lives of Christians everywhere, the times when the heavens seem silent and the Lord seems to not even be in the same zip code! I have been pondering just such a season as of late, wondering why a loving God would seemingly withhold himself? I had a pretty smart guy (oh my lawd! DO NOT tell him I said that!!) tell me recently that God uses silence to build our faith. It's a good thing he was not in the room with me when he said that. As it was, he was too far away to be hit by the things I had at hand to throw. I guess you could say I didn't like that answer. But after giving it a little bit of thought, it seems, unfortunately, to make sense. How can our faith grow if it is never exercised? And how can it be exercised if the object of our faith is always in our sight? Notice I said "in sight". The Lord never leaves us, but that doesn't mean he promises to stay where we can see him.
Then there are the times when he is there, I can see him, but it's like one of those group dates you see on that bachelor dating show. You know, the one where they send one guy out with 20 girls on a "date". Yeah, that seems like a good idea! Nothing could go wrong with that one! But I digress... Have you ever had those times with the Lord? He's there, you can see him, you can even talk to him, but it's missing something. It seems to be surface level almost, not heart level. It's like being stuck in the friend zone with the guy/girl you keep trying to get to go out with you. Being close like that makes you crazy! I'll tell you what else it does, it makes you hunger for more. Have you thought that maybe that's the point of what the Lord is trying to do? Increase our hunger?
What season are you in right now? Are you in the newness of spring or the seemingly barrenness of winter? The wilting heat of summer or the coolness of fall? Are you on a group date? or did you get that rose and are now heading out for your one-on-one? It's all about seasons. If you're in a good one, an easy one, enjoy it, it won't last forever. If you're in a rough one, hang on, it won't last forever. Learn what he has for you in each season. Make it count. I can think of few things worse that going through that winter without planting the bulbs so you get your flowers in the spring. Don't miss an opportunity to grow in faith, to learn of him, to plant those seeds that will sprout into fruitfulness when spring arrives. For it always does, my dear readers, never fear, His spring always returns.
So until that time, I'll be here, repairing dry-wall, packing lunches, heading cats, adoring my boys and planting seeds. This year, I'm thinking of putting in rose bushes, lots of rose bushes...........
Till then, I'll be soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor
