Seasons...

"To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven..." Ecclesiastes 3:1

Today must be a blogging-kind-of-day, because here I sit, once again, with words in my heart that long to escape by way of my head. So, my mind wanders and my fingers fly across the keys on my laptop as I contemplate seasons tonight.

Seasons. What comes to mind when you hear that word? Do you imagine cold, harsh winters with a blanket of snow on the ground? Or maybe you picture the flowers peeking through the green grass as spring unfolds before you. Perhaps the crisp, fall air comes to mind, with leaves gently falling to the ground in a golden rainbow of earthly colors. For those of us who live in the south, maybe the humid days of summer are remembered when we hear this word.

It doesn't matter which season you think about when you hear this word. What matters is that you recognize that with each season comes a change. A change in temparature, a change in color, a change in scenery, a change in smells.

For some reason, we, as humans, don't like change. We want to follow the same routine day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. But God has not made us for this! His own word declares that there is a season for everything. A time to laugh and a time to cry. A time to love and a time to hate. A time to mourn and a time to dance. So why do we fight change so much?

God has used circumstances in my life recently to teach me a little bit about seasons. I had been looking for a job, hoping to find the perfect one that would fit into my school schedule and still allow me to be available for my kids as much as possible. When the absolutely perfect job fell in my lap, I suddenly wasn't so sure I wanted to make that change. After all, I've been a stay-at-home mom for almost 10 years! How would I handle not being able to pick up my kids after school? And what about field trips? What about my morning coffee with my best friend?

These were all things that wouldn't be a part of my new season of life. And honestly, I spent some time mourning the season that was ending. I took a day to pray about the job (or to be more accurate, I cried about the job), and then decided that since I didn't have a choice, I was going to EMBRACE the new season that stood before me. Rather than looking back and wishing for the fresh breeze and colorful buds of spring, I'm going to throw my hands in the air, look toward the sky, spin around, and feel the heat of the summer sun beat down on my face. I'm going to turn and run toward this change with a song in my heart.

God is teaching me that change is usually hard...but it's not always a bad thing. So let's remember this: It's okay to mourn the end of a season, but then we need to get up and dance our way into the next season that God has set before us!