Last Updated on April 3, 2024
I have a tendency to wish away seasons.
For example, when I was in high school I just wanted to live on my own.
In college, I just wanted to be married.
When my son was born, I just wanted him to be able to walk.
Then, I just wanted him out of diapers.
Right now I want my two-year-old to… well… not be two anymore.
As I said, I have a tendency to wish away seasons.
But I also know and have learned through my own faith walk with Jesus, that every season serves a purpose.
“To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-4
In the same way that we plant seeds in the fall before the frost of winter, in every season of our lives, things are being planted in preparation for what’s to come.
Can you think of seasons in your own life where you walked through or experienced things that you didn’t expect?
Maybe you walked through the loss of a relationship or a challenging time at work.
Maybe you and your spouse had to navigate through a difficult situation together or a health scare that took your family by surprise.
In every season, we need God in different ways. And in every season He is stretching, shaping and adjusting our minds and hearts to grow certain muscles and character traits within us.
Right now, being the mother of a very strong-willed toddler is definitely working and stretching some of my patience muscles. I’ve wrestled with becoming a more selfless mother and wife, forever remembering that it’s not actually all about me. But though it’s painful, it’s all good things.
This reminds me a lot of Hebrews 12 where it says,
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:11
Right now we’re getting ready to head into a new year. And I think there’s always this hope that the coming year will somehow be easier and more enjoyable.
Maybe when the clock strikes midnight everything will change! I’ll suddenly love exercising! My job will get easier! My kids will shape up! While more than likely those things will not change in the course of a night, we do know that the God who orchestrates it all will remain the same.
He is working things out in His way and in His season. And we can trust and rely on the fact that He sees the full picture in a way that we never fully can understand.
So as we prepare for New Year’s Eve and the clock striking midnight for another year, I’m trying to remind myself that God sees the full picture. I only see part of it right now.
Every difficulty, every struggle, every stretching, every tantrum, and frustration is all about what He will do in me and through me.
God, as we get ready to enter a new year, help us to trust YOU and not the way things seem.
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” – 1 Corinthians 13:9-12
Abby Flynn is a writer, wife and mom of 2 living in Charlotte, North Carolina. She loves coffee, travel and one day wants to live at the beach.