Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 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. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. 15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

Verse 15 stood out to me today.  The things I'm facing and the uncertainty of today and tomorrow have happened before.  People in my life have been there, done that.  This is why we need our community around us.  This is why you surround yourself with a diverse circle of people in your life.  SOMEONE has been in your shoes before. 

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.  Before we can shout and share what God is doing from a rooftop, we need to deal with it in the closet.  To wrestle and work through the issues God has me working on in the moment.  Too often, we speak before we're ready.  Trying to work on this in my life.  What God does in my heart, needs to go deep - not wide.  Wide will come in time, but deep is what matters most in our faith. It's what grounds us.  Harvesting before you are ready leads to disease, low yields, weeds. It messes with the cycle of the plant.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.  I need some planting at this point in my life. I'm hungry and thirsty.  Craving more of Him.  It's okay to admit.  It's okay to need fertilized, so long as I come back around to harvest it.  

When reading this - it says to me "balance".  You can't need planting every year and never harvest it. You can't just have death and no life. You can't spend your whole life searching.  

Balance is hard.  It means giving up the old to go for the new.  It means disappointing some in your life to seek out the new potential relationships in life. Obeying comes with a price, but in the end an even greater reward.  It never says it will be easy. 

Better Together

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed with gratitude? To the point of having no words to express it? I've wanted to blog a bit when transitioning to our new home, but didn't have the words. I'm not sure I even do now.

We sold our house in a day. Our realtor, which we consider family, Andrew Beach knew how to price it, how to market it and wow is all we can say! He rocks!

Pressure was on to find a new house. Easier said than done with our list ---- Aloha schools, RV parking, big rooms for entertaining, prefer an HOA neighborhood, etc, etc, etc.  And for under $xxx,xxx!! LOL! (Now I can LOL, not then)

We trusted God would provide, as He always has before.  Confirmation of selling our home so quickly and for above the asking price, we knew it would happen.

This house came on the market on a Tuesday.  We had both seen it at an realtor open house, it was super cheap but at the time we said it wouldn't work for our family.  This was before we had put ours on the market.  Well, once it came back on the market and we were in a different mind frame this time, we thought we should look at it!

We called Andrew to say we wanted to look at it again. He said they were not showing it until the weekend due to having a new baby. He said if we were interested in it, we should just make an offer and have them accept it before the weekend to avoid a bidding war.  He said we could always get out of it after having the inspection. Basically, we had nothing to lose.

We did it! We made an offer on a house that we hadn't really seen!  Craziness! It was under budget, had enough square feet, etc.....

Fast forward to our move and God provided once again with amazing, over the top family and friends that helped us out.  We had 6-8 of us there for a week straight painting, putting in new lights, cleaning, weeding.  All in time to get new flooring put in.

Garth and I would never have been able to do all of that without our family. My dad and mom, aunt and uncle and friend Cyndi spent the week with us working all day long.  The house now looks amazing and we are so happy to call it home.  It fits us. It fits our family's needs and even more, our entertaining lifestyle.

Milestones

Today marks a milestone. It's one of those, as a mother that you look forward to and that you dread all at once.  Hunter got his driver's license.  He's ready. He's confident.  We've tried to prepare him. 

I remember thinking when they were little, if only I could send them to the store.  How handy it would be to run that errand for me.  Here we are..... he's got my other baby in the car with him.  They are heading to the orthodontist by themselves.  

I'm home alone. This feels odd.  It's a bit unsettling and exciting all at the same time.  

It's change. 

It's something new.  

Parenting is all about changes.  Constantly adapting your life to the littles in your life.  

I wish you could have seen his proud smile.  Really.  I teared up. He was so excited and proud.  It's a huge milestone.  He's so excited to drive himself to work. 

You parents of toddlers and littles --- it goes so quick.  Embrace every day, every moment.  Enjoy these milestones.  Celebrate them.  I would say I'd take him to celebrate, but he's already gone celebrating with his sister. 

My prayer life has changed once again in the past 2 hours.......