There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under Heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NLT

Before we get started today, will you read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 with me?  I’ll make it easy for you:

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
What do people really get for all their hard work?
I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so,
people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Time is something that I would love to pause as I watch so much around me change.  This past year I have seen my babies leave the nest and move away (I guess I really never thought it would happen). They are getting older, and I am getting older. With each month, day, year and minute, you and I are aging.

I imagine that you have weathered some hard things by now: loss and learning by doing; being married, divorced or single; raising children or not being able to have children…and so much more.  By now, many have probably benefitted from knowing your story.  Maybe you have mentored some younger sisters and shown them how God has helped you through rough times and shared some lessons that you have learned from just clinging to your faith.

Age isn’t all bad, right? Along with it comes wisdom and stamina (if not physical then spiritual), insight into deeper things, as well as looking at the more meaningful things instead of focusing on the trivial.

And as verse 11 (AMP) says,

“He has made everything beautiful in its time…”

That is YOU.  You are beautiful and God has a purpose designed for you at exactly this time in your life that is so different than any other time.  All those bumps and bruises you have had along the way and all the hard valleys and steep hills you have trudged are all so that He can grow you.

I remember as a child asking my mom, “How many days do I have left here on vacation?”  I so loved being at our favorite vacation spot that I didn’t ever want to go home and sometimes I worried more about the end than enjoying the vacation.  My parents would say “Enjoy what we are doing right now, Kim, and don’t worry about what tomorrow or any other day will be like.”  I think God says that to me, too—that wherever I am (and wherever you may be) that right now is so important to Him.  And that we should not worry about tomorrow and don’t spend time regretting yesterday but love Him now.  Trust Him now and worship and delight in Him now.  Now is all we have. See, it is in the process and in the living that the events of our lives glorify God, not just the outcome.

So whether you want time to stop or you are expecting the next phase, enjoy where you are now and ask your Father to show you just how much you mean to Him now and how important you are in His great plan!  All you have been through has meaning and will be used for something huge. Enjoy the process!

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Dear God, thank You for this time of life.  Help me to see Your plan for me.  I want to glorify You in all that I do and say and in the experiences I have already had and those I have yet to do.  Give us the peace we need now and the faith to trust in You in the process.  In Jesus’ name, amen.