A Time for Everything

1There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

This morning as I was reflecting on this past year, this passage from Ecclesiastes kept coming to mind. How true it is, that there is a time for everything. So why do I wish away time? Why do I wish for the next latest and greatest thing? Why do I wish sometimes for things to be different? Why do I wish that time would slow down? These are all things I have thought this year at some point – whether good or bad. As I reflect on this year, there IS A TIME FOR EVERYTHING. And the giver of time, our Heavenly Father, is in control of it all.

This year Dan and I had the opportunity to become PARENTS through a gestational carrier! This is definitely a prayer answered! Just a few short weeks later we said goodbye to them as God took them home to be with him, straight from the womb. We were not ready to say goodbye, but the blessing of being “parents” is something we treasure.

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

One thing we love is having a garden. We used to live on .15 of an acre (yes, that is a small lot), but we made SURE we made a small garden. It was maybe a 6’x8′ garden, but we love going out there and picking those fresh veggies. Unfortunately, we had to uproot it earlier than we wanted as we moved in with Dan’s parents. It was time to uproot not only our garden, but our lives. It was our first home that we bought and the only place we had known since being married. At times it was difficult to even think about moving, but we are so blessed to be living with Dan’s parents. And it is wonderful there.

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,

I feel Dan and I have done more weeping this past year than we have any other year. Yet at the same time, the weeping has turned to laughter at times. Though our hearts still ache for what has all happened, our laughter has been restored. We feel especially over the last few weeks (though Christmas has been hard), we feel we are becoming ourselves again.

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

This year has been a year or mourning. We have not fully understood why everything has happened as it has and why God has allowed so much loss, but we do know, one day we will dance again. Like I said before, God is restoring our hearts and minds. Without our Savior, I have no idea where we would be!
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

This year I feel we have become more “embracing” than ever before. Embracing children. We realize how precious they are! Embracing life. After the tornado, we realized how out of control our life really is – God could take us at any moment to be with Him. The tornado has given us a new perspective on life. Embracing our youth group kids. It has been so hard to let them go, especially after such an amazing mission trip to Alaska! Embracing the loves of our life – each other, our parents, our siblings, our extended families, our friends. All that has happened has helped us refocus on the things that matter in life.

6 a time to search and a time to give up,

The past few months have been filled with searching. Searching for jobs, searching for insurances, searching for understanding, searching for God’s will. To say that we have “given up” I wouldn’t say that – but I will say everyday we are trying to “give up” control and just let God handle it. We are doing the best we can with what we know. But some things we have no control over so we are going to try not to worry about it and just let God worry about it (not like He worries though :)). But we are trying to rest in His care.

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

Boy has this been true this year! Even before we knew God was calling us to move, we had been simplifying much of our life. We realized we had a lot of things we just did not need. So, we went through every nook and cranny in our house to purge of things we didn’t need and donated what we knew someone else could put to good use. We ended up being reminded of things we forgot we had and also gave us time to be content with what we have. Then the move! That made us rid our lives of even MORE items that we knew we just plainly didn’t need. We had a lot of those “well, maybe someday” things and we decided to just get RID of them! That “someday” never really comes, so we decided not to hang on to those things. Simplifying is something we continually work on and are excited about what God is continually teaching us through this process.

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,

The first thing that came to mind when reading this is crafting for me. I see the word “mend” and I think of sewing. Though I know God had more of a “history of redemption” thought behind this, I think in many areas of life, this can be true. On a more trivial side, I have enjoyed expanding my crocheting and crafting skills this year. Something I love about what we do is that it allows me to be more of a homemaker and minister to people through our home (especially youth group kids). Obviously we are in a different season right now, but we are praying that someday God blesses us with another home to minister out of.

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

God has taught us SO MUCH this year with regards to just “letting go” of things we cannot control. We have yet to fully understand why Dan was let go from his job. We can only reflect on the things we do know and just rest in that. We can beg, but it would do no good because we just will not be told. The different viewpoints on issues has been hard to just let go of as well. Some things that have been said about us and to us have been extremely hurtful, but arguing about them will only bring more hurt. Some things said have really challenged our faith, and though at the time it just brought us to tears, we know our faith is going to be what carries us. Through all that has occurred, we have just been striving and striving to follow God’s will and though not always easy, we know God has not lost sight of the goal or what He is doing with our life. We have learned more lessons this year than we probably ever thought we’d learn in a lifetime, but we wouldn’t trade it all for anything. Yes we wish we understood why. Yes we wish we had our babies with us. But we KNOW God is working out His plan to perfection and with eagerness to show us what’s next. We just have to be patient. God isn’t bound by time, so we just have to let it go! This all has taught us to just be silent when needed, but stand up for things we feel are Biblical and true.

8 a time to love and a time to hate,

To be quite honest, I don’t like the word “hate.” I try not to use it, but I know it comes out of my mouth sometimes. I guess I see “hate” as despising something God has created. Though, on the other side of things, there is sin in the world and THAT I hate. I hate what Satan does. I hate the kniving ways he works. But I feel like it’s hate that divides people. People “hate” something about someone or something and it divides. What ever happened to just loving God and loving people? I fall into the “hate” trap all too often, unfortunately. Not that I necessarily use that word in a situation, but the daily choices I make, determine whether I really DO LOVE GOD AND LOVE PEOPLE. This year I have learned how important it is to have a philosophy of love – love no matter who it is. Love no matter what may have caused pain. Love because God first loved us.

a time for war and a time for peace

Not that I see our life as in “war,” because it’s FAR from that. But I feel our life has been a little chaotic on many levels. I feel God has us in a time of uprooting, but a time for peace in the sense that he has us “resting” right now. In September and October, our feel like so much in our life was getting changed and it was so much change at one time. But it was God who continued to offer peace.

It has been a very interesting year. We have enjoyed family vacations, weddings, escapes, much time together, and time to just grow in our relationship with God. Sometimes we are so ready to start another year, yet at the same time, we are saying goodbye to things that are sometimes hard to let go of. Though, God has brought so much healing. We are so eager to see where God is calling us – we are excited to get back into ministry. To minister to youth. But first things first, right? We are trying to enjoy the time that God has us in because we know it’s for a purpose. And, we are so excited to be going to Belize in a little less than 2 weeks! We are so excited to what God has in store for us there!

We hope you have a wonderful new year, that today you will take the time to reflect on how God has worked in your life over this past year, and that you will anticipate the new year with excitement over what God is going to do with it.