My day started earlier than normal today with my son yelling out for me before 7am. I'm not whining at the time because I know so many get up even earlier. But that was a tad bit earlier than I was prepared. I started a challenge about 4 weeks ago to get up for my family, not to my family. I make a choice daily to begin with time with our Lord and in His Word and then get those blessings out of bed.
(Side note...to understand my heart, please know that I very much feel like my life can be broken down to a BC/AD timeline. I refer to things as before Mom, After Mom. In a sense, I'm still stuck in July 2012. I feel like I've moved some, but definitely in slow motion.)
Two days before she left us, she and I sat on a hotel bed in Pigeon Forge. We were waiting for my dad and husband to come pick us up to take my kids to Dollywood. My dad was ill, feeling weak, but he so desired to see my son play in their waterpark. As we waited, Mom proceeded to tell me how the past 5 days had been amazing. Dad had felt the best he had ever felt in the last 5 years. She was digging into God's Word, in great communion with Him. She revealed to me what He was showing her through Job. The conversation was more about the suffering and how to pull through on faith. She confessed her own selfishness and stubborness to me. She was free from a burden she had been carrying for far too long.
When I made the choice to start waking up early, I found a study based on Luke. I pressed on with it even though I didn't feel led to participate. I held out waiting for the Hello Mornings Challenge, not knowing what the material would be. Then it was launched... Abounding Hope, a study of Job. Wow....can we say divine?
I was nervous. I had slim expectations. I never imagined that God could change my heart in just 3 short weeks.
Today's passage was Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.....the ever popular "a time to..." I have heard this scripture so many times at funerals. Most camp out on verse 2....a time to be born and a time to die. A commentary I read through this morning said some observe that here is a time to be born and a time to die, but no time to live; that is so short that it is not worth mentioning; as soon as we are born we begin to die.
Thank goodness the scriptures go on because there are many more appointed times.
Birth and Death. Plant and Uproot. Kill and Heal. Tear down and Build up. WEEP and LAUGH. MOURN and DANCE. Scatter stones....gather stones. Embrace and shun. Seek and Lose. Keep....throw away. Tear apart, mend together. BE SILENT...SPEAK UP. Love and Hate. War and Peace. (This is Life.....this is the dash between the dates.)
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