I have been struggling with this blog for awhile because I’m not posting with the same focus I had when I first started to write here. When I first started this blog I was in a period of immediate, deep grief over the illness and then loss of my mom to cancer. Along with that came the wonderful gift of gardening — something she had loved and I had just found — to carry me through some very, very hard days. All of this poured into and fed the growth of my faith and a period of discovery about both myself and, more importantly, my God.
Solomon (not the Beetles) had his heart set in solid truth when he wrote Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
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,
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.
I think that this is part of why I’ve felt very unfocused in my writing here recently. I have entered a new season of life.
This is not to say that grief is gone — I can’t think of a day that goes by without some thought or longing to be with my mom in heaven, worshipping our Creator. Time has a way, though, of softening sharp edges and the Spirit has a way of using Christ’s redeeming power to take every sorrow and draw from it joy. As this process has happened I have slowly shifted my focus to other needful things: my marriage, my son, my home…
As a result, the gardening posts will likely be fewer (though I do have a new plot to sink my hands into at this late part of the growing season), my posts about my mother likely farther in between (though my life with her informs every part of life after her going home). You’ll hear me talking dollars more than any girl who hates even thinking about money ought, and struggling through the fast-paced adventures of raising my little boy. You’ll likely hear about a lot of apologies made to my husbad, though I hope those become fewer, too (out of peace, clearly, rather than a hardening of heart). Cooking? Well, I’ll never stop talking about that. And my Savior? As the old hymn tells us, “Lord I need thee every hour.” And I do.
But yes, my focus has changed. And having said just that, I feel more free to post the things I’m dealing with now. I hope it’s interesting and helpful to you — because it’s interesting and helpful to me. Indeed, there is a time for everything.