As I was driving my children to school this morning, earlier than normal these days because of snowy and ice covered roads, I couldn't help but smile at the beauty I saw around me. Gentle snow fell as we made our way through white powdered covered roads. My favorite, cause it makes me imagine what it must have been like to live 200 years ago, traveling in an open sleigh to grandmothers house. :) I can't help myself....I know it is cold and blustery, inconvenient, hand and lip chapping, but still, I just can't get over the beauty of it all. And that is when the thought ran across my mind, "there is beauty in every season." And it dawned on me, how that statement, applies even to our personal and spiritual lives.
We all go through seasons. In my life, the season I am currently in is called "Taxi Driver Mom", at least that is the way I feel a lot of days. Running three children back and forth to school, to friends houses, to youth group, to school events, to church events....to all kinds of events. It is easy to get overwhelmed and look at how tired it makes me and how much I often want to run away to a deserted island to be left alone under a cabana with maybe a tall glass of ice tea, a good book, and my knitting...to not be needed for a moment or two or three. And if that is all I focus on, my need to get away, I miss the beauty that is a part of this "Taxi Driver Mom" season. I miss out on focusing on the joy of having healthy, involved, and inspired children, warm hugs, love notes left on the dinning room table, snuggles, private conversations with a 14 year old opening herself up to me, prayers in the van on the way to school, listening to Lecrea and Andy Mineo rap their way into my heart as I drive those dear children all over Timbuktu , and the list could go on and on......there is beauty in this season.
Just like outside. There is beauty in the cold of winter. In the snow that gently falls, drifting like whipped cream covering a banana cream pie and as it coats the branches of the pine trees like powdered sugar. There is beauty in each intricate snow flake, none of which are ever exactly alike. Just that, draws of breath of admiration and awe out of me.
....And it reminds me to apply this simple thought to my life
...."There is beauty in every season"
....What will I choose to focus on? The cold or the beauty of the snow? The days of endless running and being needed or the joy of watching little people spread their wings and learn to fly?
What will be my focus?
It is the choice of my focus that makes or breaks the outcome of my moment, my season, my day, my year, my life. I want to learn even better to focus on the beauty of every season, no matter what that might be. I know the danger of a statement like this.....cause usually God speaks to my heart in order to prepare me for what is next....hmmmm....like maybe a season coming that I am not so thrilled about or maybe a season of more waiting....that is part of my season right now too. That season has been going on for a while.
It reminds me a bit of another thought that came to me the other day, that it is thankfulness that awakens the soul and I think that goes well with these random thoughts today. I think in order to find the beauty I must find the thankful in the midst of the season and then I must GIVE thanks. And in the giving of thanks, I will have my eyes opened up to the beauty of any and every season.
How about you? What season are you in right now? Maybe you are in a difficult season right now. Maybe it feels a little cold, blustery, and hand and lip chapping at the moment. I want to encourage you along with myself, to change your focus. Find the thankful even in the cold and give thanks for it. Focus on the beauty of that thankful moment and I think I can almost guarantee you....that in the moment you and I decide to give thanks, our eyes will be opened up to the beauty of the season we are in.
Blessings!
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