I want you to love your seasons

by Amerey Campbell (read more about Amerey here.)

While I was rocking my child back to sleep tonight, after she had woken herself back up, AFTER  fighting sleep for an HOUR (come on GIRL!). I thought back to a young girl sitting in a white basement college classroom quietly, dreamily,  planning her upcoming wedding while everyone else diligently took notes from the professor. That girl (me) could not get through the next couple weeks fast enough, and yet her wedding day has come and gone. WAIT (back to the mother rocking in the dark room) my wedding day has come and gone, as have three anniversaries, the birth of my first child, and my child’s first birthday!

WHERE HAS TIME GONE?!?

Sure, we all ask ourselves this question at least once a week, but for a moment, stop and really think about it.

Our lives are whizzing by faster than we EVER imagined. AND YET, we cannot wait to get through seasons of our lives. We are so so incredibly anxious for “this time” to be over.

Like me, my daughter has always been a poor sleeper, from the day that she was born, there was, and are, way to many things going on in her life for sleep to be a priority. I remember those sleepless nights oh so well (because it was YESTERDAY!) Holding my sleepless newborn, willing my eyes to stay open, telling myself, “This is just a stage, she will grow out of it soon.” And then again with my six month old, “I thought you were suppose to be sleeping a little better by now?!” Sitting around a table with a handful of other mothers telling one, “ don’t worry if your four month old isn’t sleeping for five hours yet, my one year old still wakes up 5 to 6 times a night.” And then tonight as I held my 17 month old close against my chest bouncing and humming for the second time, I thought about my wedding, her birth, her birthday, her younger sibling growing within my womb, and I wondered, why do I want this sleepless season to be over? why do I long for the day when she will no longer need my body agains hers to go to sleep? Why? Because of how little sleep I get? Who cares?! I want a million babies and they will all come with no sleep. This is a beautiful season in my daughter’s life, she is small and vulnerable, she is mine to hold and comfort, and bring rest to. Shame on me for wishing away this “mama” season in my daughters life. Shame.

We start as children, wishing to be like older brothers, friends, cousins. I wished my childhood seasons away, always wanting the next. I can see it in my daughter already, as she looks on envious of what the older kids on the playground can do. She just wants that season now, and then the next, now.

No, little girl! I want you to love your seasons! Each and every one of them. I want you to thrive in them! To rejoice and be glad in them!

O Lord please help me enjoy every one of my children’s seasons, keep me from rushing them on to the next for convenience sake. But most of all Lord help me teach my children to be thankful and love their current seasons. I never want them to feel like I’m rushing them through life, or that they have to rush through life. Help us love our seasons.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.