Embrace Your Season

​As I was checking out at the grocery store a couple days ago, the cashier asked me, “So, are you ready for Christmas?” It was November 1st. “Uhhmmmm, no,” I said.
 
Since then, I’ve heard conversations, seen pictures, and seen advertisements all geared toward Christmas. Wait. A. Minute. It is still November…and barely November at that.
 
Maybe it is because it is hot here...like really hot…and we haven’t really had any fall temperatures, or maybe it’s because fall is my favorite season and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but I get a little cranky in November. It used to not be this way, but it seems like Halloween blurs into Christmas without much thought to Thanksgiving. Honestly, I am not even sure I can find Thanksgiving napkins if I need them if I don’t buy them in late September or early October.
 
We tend to rush seasons these days thanks to store sales and profits. They want to get seasonal items on the shelves for as long as they can in order to make sure they sell. Stores do this, but we also rush seasons in our lives sometimes.
 
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:1, "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven." Every season has a purpose. If we didn’t have fall, leaves would be on the trees when the heavy snows come. Leaves on trees that become heavy with ice and snow are dangerous. They cause damage. If we go from summer to winter without the in-between season, we could have some serious issues. Thankfully, God is in control of the seasons in the natural sense and He has it covered, but what about when it comes to our life seasons? What happens when we rush, or want to skip over, a season in our lives? We miss out on valuable lessons and beautiful moments.
 
I was talking with a young single that I disciple last night about the season of singleness. We were discussing that singleness can be a good thing in its due season. I tried explaining to her that when we are teenagers, we want to be grown up. When we are grown up, we want to be teenagers. When we are single, we want to be married. When we are married, we sometimes wish we were single again. When we are married, we want children. When we have children, we sometimes wish they would grow up fast and move out. When we are empty nesters, we wish they would be little again. When we are old, we wish we could be young (at whatever age was our best season). Instead of embracing the day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24), we wish away days and seasons hoping the next day or season might be better.
 
Along the way, however, we miss little nuggets of goodness. In hard seasons, we tend to look at the rock with big, open eyes instead of squinting a little to see the little specks of shimmery minerals that make up the total rock. If the minerals were missing, the rock would be incomplete—just like our lives.
 
I am not jumping on the bandwagon of rushing the season just because every one else is. I love today. I love that it is a gift from God. I am not ready for the next season until it is—or I am—completely ready for it.
 
Whatever season you find yourself in, don't rush it. Live each day to the fullest, fully embracing the blessings of the day—even amidst the trials and the struggles. There is a reason for every single season in our lives.