Seasons of Life

 Do you ever look back on old Facebook memories and just giggle at yourself for the silly things you said? Or you had conversations with people that you barely remember but are talking like you were BFFs? I often look back at some of those old conversations with people and think "Gosh. I miss that person. I wish I would have stayed in touch." But you know, life. Perhaps you come across an old picture of landscape or talk about the weather that day, or even discuss your day trip and the all the adventures. I can't tell you how many times I posted about how miserable I was pregnant or how tired I was from trying to keep up with little kids. It's amazing all the things I would share and talk about on the Facebook! But I love looking back on all those old memories because my old brain doesn't always remember some of the finer details. 

Life takes you so many different places and you meet so many different people.  You go in and out of different seasons. My seasons of life happened pretty fast. Sometimes I feel like that old Alabama song "I'm in a Hurry." Granted, I don't feel like all I gotta do is live and die. Much more to life than that. But the point is, I was rushing and rushing from one season of life to another. Like, hurry up and have kids. Hurry up and get back to Texas and hurry up and get these kids grown because I am exhausted. But goodness, I am quickly approaching 40 and my kids are quickly growing older (I mean, my oldest is already a freshman in high school) and I miss my babies. There are days I wish I would have appreciated the 4 kids under 5 stage. It was chaos but we had some great time and fun memories. I wish I would have appreciated the desert a bit more while I was there. I am in a season of life where I am trying to hold on to my kids as long as I can because they are just growing so fast. I want time to slow down a bit. I often think of a quote said in the office, which I may have posted on a blog before but it still "slaps," as the kids these days say. And I may not being using that term correctly. 😂

And it's true! You don't really ever know you are in the good old days until they are good and gone. And I think thats why I enjoy going back to those Facebook memories and remembering those good times. 

Often times I feel guilty about relationships and I miss friendships that I once had and maybe if I would have called them a bit more we could have still stayed in touch. But the truth is A) I don't need to put that all on me. The phone and all go both ways. And B) people come in and out of your life for a season. My good friend Dr. John Delony (okay, not a good friend, but the amount I listen to him both on his show and the Ramsey show, he might as well be) said that people come in and out of you life for seasons. And then we move on and find other friends for seasons. The truth is we lived out in Nevada. It was really hard to keep up  and maintain relationships because we were thousands of miles away and I was having babies left and right. Talk about busy! And now that I have had my babies, those friends are just now having babies and they are incredibly busy as well.  

I feel like I am in a season of life right now where it's just constantly trusting God and His plan for our lives. The song "Build a Boat," by Colton Dixon, accurately describes what I feel in this time. 

Side note: Anyone else remember Colton Dixon from American Idol? Just me?! I am amazed at how many American Idol folks ended up on the Christian radio. Mandisa, Danny Gokey... this guy.

 

The past two years have felt like wandering the desert in some way. And we are sitting here building this boat in a place where it never rains and people are like "they crazy." But we feel like this is what we are supposed to do. And God has always provided. We have seen it in our lives so many times.  And it's true, His "love never fails or fades." 

Life may throw crazy things at us but we are going to build that boat so that we are prepared for the crazy storms in life.  And we are going to trust God through those storms. Some may think we are crazy and that's okay. 

Moral of the story: soak in the days and the memories. Trust God in life and let Him lead you where you need to go.