I look on, my gaze resting on her smiling face. She reaches her hand for the stem before her and gently plucks it, her smiling eyes turning around to meet mine. I have watched her harvest the dandelions of the field on many occasions, but this time was different. Like iron lead, so was the lump that I found resting in my throat. I worked to etch the soft tendrils framing her face full of wonder and glee, this moment, I wanted to freeze in my mind. I listened even closer to the sound of her giggle, burning its melody into my memory. The escalator of time that she was standing on was weighing heavy on me. I watched her blow the seeds into the wind. I drop another memory into my motherhood time-capsule. The words are swishing around in my heart, “The days are long, but the years are short”. The sunlight dances on her hair; and I ask for not a moment to be wasted.
Before the bloom
These are the years where the soft buds of our children are forming. We only have so long, or rather so little time, before the blossom appears. If we are not careful, the blossom will have taken place and left us missing out on the joy and wonder of the bloom. A blossom never returns to the bud, time does not allow for such wishes.
The days of growth are crucial – they are the slow days of tending. If we are so focused on the task, we miss the joy of who it is we are caring. Sometimes we look so forward to seeing the blossom, that we forget about the wonder of the bud in-waiting. Tending the tender buds, guarding for the day of its blossom – it is a task of patience, resilience, and attentiveness. But then the bloom… and the years of attending the bud are but a memory. While the blossom will be beautiful and we will love its new season of growth, I imagine there will be an ache in the remembrance of caring for the bud.
So, as the laughter flows, let us give thanks for the years before the bloom. In the stormy seasons, let us ask for wisdom where we have to guard and tend buds carefully. When joy falls like rain, let us tuck away those memories and store them for when seasons of drought come along.
The years before the bloom are hard, but they are also glorious.
Capturing moments
As we sit here, let us remember the gift of time-present. Laundry will eventually lessen, the messes will gradually stop showing up in various spaces of our home, and sleep will find its way back to us again. But what we have right now…we will never be able to recapture. It happens and it is over, just like that. The winds of change blowing through can not be sucked back in and held.
We cannot pretend that everyday will be perfect. But we can pray for every day to be captured for God’s glory and our good. We can begin by asking for a shift in our mindset and attitude. Let us be the ones who take the little time we have with our children and cultivate it well. The time-capsule of motherhood is before us, may we fill it well.
Ideas to nourish time with your children
Spending time in God’s Word together.
This is about enjoying God with your children. We can easily turn this into a lesson for them or we may approach this dryly…Enter into this time with reverence and awe. Point to the holiness of God and His goodness. Be in wonder of Him ALONG with your children. Make this time about worshiping Him.
A time set aside that is device-free. No phones, tablets, or screens of any kind. Be present with each other. Laugh together. Enjoy conversation with each other.
Read books together
Read-Aloud Revival is a great resource for how to begin and book suggestions.
Start a new hobby together
Learn how to – knit, draw, cook, bake, build, etc. Let this be a group effort
Starting some of these things (or all of them) might be difficult, but it will be worth it. Don’t waste away the years. Hold on to them and may your time spent in them be rich and beautiful.
“Is it almost spring?” was my six-year-old son’s constant question, every single day since February. Each day, he marked his Star Wars calendar with the appropriate number of X’s for the day, and then he began the countdown. I watched as his little finger tapped each box until he found the one marking the first day of spring. As he announced the new number of days until spring, he smiled excitedly, thrilled for the arrival of this new season. He literally prayed anxiously for its quick arrival.
Are You Embracing Your Season?
But within a month of spring’s arrival, I heard the words, “Is it almost summer yet?” I looked at him and said, “Enjoy the season you are in right now, today.” Those words stung. I thought about my words to my son, and in that moment, it hit me. Those words were intended for me. What about you?Are you embracing your season?
It happens. Many times I find myself sometimes wanting to hurry through certain seasons in my life to get to the “next best” season. Somewhere in my mind, I can easily begin to create a feeling that where I am right now is not enough. Discontentment cultivates a lie which stems from something deeper. Just as my son ached for the arrival of spring, all to discard the much-anticipated season for the coming summer moment, so do I ache for a certain season, so I can then quickly wish it away for something yet unattainable, something perceivably better. This cycle of brokenness robs us from enjoying all that God has for us in our “right now” moment. Instead, we wait to experience Him and everything else better and fuller in a moment built on tomorrow.
I set a challenge for myself: Enjoy the season you are in right now. My own words echoed over and over in my head. If I embrace this season and this moment completely, then my heart and mind should be fully abiding in Him and resting in the work He is doing in my life right now. What good would it be for the coming season to arrive, if I have not yet learned to abide in Him in this very moment? Waste upon waste. We bear today’s burdens here on earth for tomorrow’s joy of heaven.
The Blooms Produce the Fruit
The season of life I am in may not seem to be one that feels like a vineyard full and lush. My branch may not feel like it is producing the choicest fruits or is the most treasured of all the branches in the vineyard. But I rest in this: If I rush through the season of spring, I miss the beauty of a bloom in growth. How marvelous is the bloom! Yet how also marvelous is it to be from where the bloom grows. If I constantly rush through every season, I do not allow the Vine to do His work of producing the bloom. Without the beautiful bloom, the fruit never grows.
If not acknowledged and surrendered, my discontented spirit can be my undoing. However, if I let the words found in John saturate to my roots and I learn to abide in Him, the hope of fruit can then grow. I should not look around and decide how to hurry through the seasonal moments. Rather, I need to embrace my season and ask God where I can best serve Him.
What Season are You In?
Maybe, like me, that moment for you is at home with young children, or maybe it is in the workplace. Or perhaps you are in the season of a single person. Maybe it is in the life of the world traveler, or maybe your “right now” moment is you searching for your place in the world. We are all experiencing a season. Will we abide in Him and use every moment for His glory? Or will we begrudge our season and let our branches wither and dry?
When we abide in Him, our hearts beat with His, our minds center on Him, and we live fully for His glory. The soul who abides finds something better than contentment; it finds fulfillment. This soul moves forward with the hope of the gospel growing from every empty space on the branch. This soul clings to the Vine, and by His grace, produces much fruit. It might be difficult to see, but He is nodding you on and excitedly leading you in your kingdom work. No matter what season you are in, embrace your season and use it for His glory.
“Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.” C.T. Studd
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