Embrace Your Season of Life Instead of Wishing It Away
(Originally published in January, 2019)
For me, the ideal Saturday morning includes sleeping-in with my wife, getting out of bed, making a pot of coffee, and sitting down with my Bible and journal. Sometime around 9:00, we roll downstairs and make breakfast and watch ESPN College Gameday. The rest of the day involves a combination of college football, a workout, some housework, and date night.
Instead, here’s what a normal Saturday actually looks like:
Our 12-year old comes into our room at 6:15am, and asks for Kristen’s phone so he can check sport scores from Friday night.
We get out of bed at 6:30 so we can shower, wake up the other boys, make a quick breakfast and head out the door for an 8:00am soccer/basketball/baseball game.
The rest of the day includes checking scores on our phones, a non-stop shuttle from one game to the next, eating sandwiches we made at home, all while driving from one field to the other.
We get back home, exhausted, eat dinner, put kids to bed, and watch a few minutes of the Saturday college football game of the week.
Emotionally and physically drained, we slide into bed, dream of trading lives with someone else, and wonder where the day went. We wish the next Saturday would be different, knowing that it will be exactly the same as this one.
Most of us live in the world of believing the grass is greener on the other side. If only we had his job, their car, her body, her husband’s paycheck, their life, and so much more. We spend so much time comparing and coveting.
At the same time, we compare and whine about our current season of life. Life would be better if my kids were older, younger again, or out of diapers. For me and Kristen, we couldn’t wait until the diapers ended. And then we couldn’t wait until our boys were all in school. Now I can’t wait until we don’t have games all weekend long. It’s always something.
Embrace your season of life
Today I want to share a simple reminder we all know: embrace your current season of life. The one you’re in, right now! Instead of comparing and coveting everyone else’s season or life, what would it look like for you and me to embrace and be thankful for our current season of life? What if we took the opportunity to thank God for our blessings and for the wins and challenges of today?
Maybe you long for the day when your child sleeps through the night. I remember those days very well, and not nearly as well as my wife remembers them! It’s okay to want to sleep like a normal person again. But, in the midst of your desire to sleep through the night, know that a day will come when your baby is too big to hold. I can’t get up at 2:30 and rock my 14-year old twins to bed. I’m not sure I want to go back, but I know I miss the days when one of my boys would curl up on me and his whole body fit on my chest and stomach.
Most new parents feel so clueless. We don’t know what to do with this tiny human being! So we read books, ask for help and try every technique in the book, and sometimes nothing works. We long for the day when we’re the expert and not the rookie. For example, when we had our twins, Kristen went from being an amazing, competent physical therapist to a mom of newborn twins. She went from being the top in her field to the newbie who sometimes had no clue what she was doing. Sometimes the tendency is to long for the career again. Rather, embrace the season of growth and change.
Embrace the season when you feel inadequate. I’ve heard it said before that if dependence on God is the goal, then weakness is the advantage. In those seasons where we feel inadequate, we receive an opportunity to cling closer to Jesus. For example, I have struggled on and off with my weight and eating patterns. Those seasons when I'm broken and recognize I need the Lord’s help are some of the sweetest seasons. I hate living in the misery of my sin and poor choices, but I do know that I can embrace those seasons because they lead me to a closer dependence on the Lord.
We don’t know what tomorrow holds. James writes, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”” (James 4:14-15).
We have no idea what tomorrow holds. Rather, embrace the day in front of you. I need this reminder as much as anyone else I know.
An ever-present challenge
I got a little stressed-out today. I’m trying to launch a book, and the background is filled with the sounds of four boys. One is playing Xbox and announcing the results of every single play. One is pacing upstairs reading and the floor creaks with every step he takes. Another just never stops talking. And the fourth one is playing Careless Whisper by Wham! on his saxophone over and over and over and over.
I just want a little piece and quiet and I can’t find it anywhere. And I just want the drying rack to not have 11 cups in it always. I’m tired of basketballs in the dining room, and I don’t even have the time or energy to watch one episode of Tidying Up to try and end the madness.
But as I think of embracing the season, I know in a few years, there will be no more Xbox, creaking floors, chatty boys, or Careless Whisper. We’ll have two cups in the drain and the basketballs will be in the garage where they belong.
In some ways, it will be glorious for Kristen and me. But I know I’m going to miss those boys. Embrace the season you’re in. Don’t wish it away.
Your Turn:
Whether single, dating, engaged, married, or single again, what’s your favorite part of your current season of life? What do you need to embrace?