EMBRACE… when you hear this word the first thing one often thinks of is a hug or to hold onto to someone. I have a friend who hates hugs and the thought of anyone embracing her makes her run and hide yet sometimes it’s worth just seeing that look on her face of ‘back off’ as you pretend you are going to hug her. Actually entertaining really…. Yet there are many of us that do exactly that in a season we are unsure what to do in. Instead of taking it and holding onto it we tend to try and push it away or maybe even run from it because its uncomfortable, or maybe we just feel “bored” in it and think we are in the wrong place.
In the Oxford Dictionary the second definition given for embrace is to “accept or support something willingly or enthusiastically”.
So needless to say I had an interesting year in 2017. As one season closed the excitement of a new season began. The pains of transition passed and we began to settle into the new. I remember thinking this is it, soon all my prayers will be answered and I will finally be living out all I was called to do and it is going to be great and this is the beginning… BRING IT ON!! I was ready…. Or so I thought. We settled into things and I began to find my groove and then I sat back waiting, waiting for the next big thing to happen. When really the next big thing was right in front of me I just needed to learn to embrace it. I knew what I needed to do, God was showing me but for some reason I will still looking for the answer to my next big prayer, after all that’s the next thing right. Yes God had broken some of the “planner” in the first part of the year but now he was going to work on it some more.
Maybe that’s you? You’re on the other side of transition which may have been very painful. You have surrendered and now you are in a new season and everything is new. Maybe you have gotten through the excitement of change because of surrender and now all of a sudden you feel like nothing is happening and you’re just “there.” You have started over with so much and it is all good but then ……blank. You know you couldn’t of gotten where you are without the very obvious miracles as the God of the impossible did more then you could imagine. Yet now you sit and wonder why you are there and you become busy looking for the next miracle. This is where I found myself not so long ago.
I am so thankful for the miracles and what seemed like impossibilities of the things God clearly brought me through in the season that followed as I learned total surrender and I am certain you are as well. However, shortly after I found myself on the other side of the transition and when the smoke began to settle, I sat and thought “now what”. No plan, no idea of what’s next. NO PLAN, this was unlike me, only I knew that God had the plan and there was a purpose for all the drastic changes and it will be good. I had been separated from everything I have known for the last 11 years… So I did the next thing I knew to do, I began to look for the next big thing. Thinking “okay God brought me to this point to answer my prayers and desires and the things I have been patiently waiting for and praying for.”
Right but yet so WRONG; I think if you can be both of those things it is most likely in this moment!! OR is it just me? Please tell me someone else has been there?
My thoughts on the right, before the wrong. Yes, He brought me to this point to answer my prayers perhaps but most likely in a different way then I expect, or maybe not at all but to redirect my prayers. He also brought me to this place because it is part of the process to get me to where He wants me and to perhaps answer those prayers. So it is part of the process. I have also learned that God often answers our prayers in a way we least expect, but the beauty is it’s always more then you expect and suddenly the process becomes worth it.
The thinking is wrong because the answers may not be coming as soon as you expect because our timing is not Gods timing. Remember we are in a process and God uses this process and this wait to stretch us, just remember God is still in the waiting. Could the answers come sooner then you expect, yes; but, since most people live more out of instant gratification then they may realize, I am willing to bet the answer still does not come as soon as you expect, because God is not a God of instant gratification to our desires because He loves us, and I am so thankful for that!! God knows best! Are there prayers God answers immediately? Yes, I do believe there are.
How different would our lives be if God was into instant gratification prayers? I would be willing to bet it would not be pretty. Same way it would not be pretty if we gave our kids everything they asked for. I mean, hello; think of things perhaps you have prayed for that have not been answered and you no longer pray for because that desire went away and now you find yourself thankful God never answered them!! Can I say hello ex crushes, thank God for the NO! You know that Garth Brooks song “Unanswered Prayers” that’s this moment!
So now we find ourselves on the other side and in a season where we have no idea what’s next and we don’t know or understand why we are where we are. What do you do in this season?
Not too long ago I found myself right in this place. God had shown me what I was to do but he confirmed it through an unexpected friend. I was to rest, (the thought of rest was uncomfortable for me), pray fervently, pursue holiness and invest in my kids and focus on getting settled where we were with all the changes. The latter part of this I could do but it was the rest I could not grasp until it was confirmed. It seemed because the desires of my heart were drowning out the simple need of just sitting and learning to embrace where I was and rest in my season. Slow down…. You don’t have to go all the time, there does not always have to be a “big thing happening” the big thing is planted in the small things around you. It wasn’t until I began to do what he was asking that I began to understand the stillness of this season.
So in this season you embrace it! You press in and embrace just being where you are and what’s around you. You stop trying to look over the wall you are surrounded by to the next big thing and you embrace the simple things right in front of you. What are the simple things around you that maybe God wants to draw your attention to? Maybe it’s as simple as He wants you to draw closer into who He is and just be still with Him for a time.
Embrace that “just a mom” feeling even if the routine is the same and you feel bored and useless or all you do is wipe baby butts all day, or repeat everything you say 5 times to your teenager. Hello, I have been there!! Embrace it and do it with all your heart unto God because you “get to” and you shift your perspective of this is your calling and your season. Embrace it as much as you can right now and because you “get to” plant in this moment, to not only prepare yourself for the next season but your kids and family as well. So instead of thinking you are “just” a mom with the same routine day in and day out, think of it as your call for this season, embrace it. Because just maybe in the next season you will be a little more spread thin, or maybe this is the season your family needs you the most as compared to the next. What’s your perspective? I challenge you to shift it just a little and embrace it.
If it is the job where you are clueless and daily have no idea why you are there. You are bored, your restless you just don’t feel fulfilled, yet you know deep down it is where God has you and you are supposed to be there, then you embrace it. You shift your perspective and look around and at the person or people next to you. Maybe your “why” is them and you are just too busy trying to find the next big reason or thing for you to be there. Perhaps that person is your “why” and the next big thing! Maybe your why is simply to bring some light and joy into a heavy atmosphere and that’s the big thing! It may not seem big to you but that little thing may have the capability to turn bigger than you know, so don’t hold back. Shift your perspective, embrace the stillness of the season and look close by instead of far off.
Maybe it’s a compilation of both these things as it has been for me in the past. Running from being a single mom to work and sitting there thinking “is this all there is”. You know deep down that there is more, but this is the season you are in. Maybe your embracing the small and doing the best you can to see the things around you, given the mundane nature of running 500 directions in one week and doing it all alone physically, yet knowing that this is the season you are in even if you don’t know why. You are trying your best with whatever energy you can muster up and trying to embrace it but you still feel like you’re missing something.
You pray! In every season you pray, pray fervently and you ask God to show you what you need to do and learn in this season and He will begin to show you, when you begin to embrace your season and begin to search God for the “why” of your season. If you find He is being quiet then you continue to pray and you prepare. You use this time as a catalyst to prepare for the next season all while embracing the things that may simply be around you and you do the best you can do and you choose to do it well. You draw into the friendship and closeness God has for you and pursue holiness. What is it you’re praying for that you need to prepare for?
Someone told me recently “Bloom where you are planted”. This is a choice. Will you bloom? or Will you just sit and wait? If you are in a season you need to embrace and bloom in to prepare you for the next and you choose to wait, well just realize you may spend some extra time there. Remember that what is “simply” around you may be the catalyst of preparation. Stop trying to look into the next season and over what’s around you or right in front of you.
Embrace where you are and use the time to prepare. Prepare, prepare, prepare. It is a word that’s been very heavy on me lately. It may be simple and easy, or may even seem mundane and boring but it’s important whatever it is, so embrace it. It is part of His plan and you have no idea what part it takes in building His kingdom. Don’t stop digging in and be pro-active and continue to grow in what’s around you. God has a plan and you and I, we are a part of it!!
Just for the parents….
Moms/Dads let me tell you, it is easy to sit back and say “I am just a stay home mom/dad” or “all I do is take care of kids”. Let me remind you that God gave you those kids as a blessing and you are not “just” a stay home mom/dad, you are blessed to stay home and invest in your children as your season of planting. You do not get to say “all I do” with a tone of feeling like it’s not important because it is a very BIG something! It is the most important part of who they become. So what are you going to do with it? How are you going to embrace it? How will you invest in your season raising your children? You as their mother/father are fully equipped by God and chosen by God to raise them. Even when it is hard God knew you could handle it. God knew you were the perfect one for the job.
I don’t get to stay home and raise my kids by being home with them, but you know God already knew that. He knew that given my circumstance I would be the perfect one to be able to raise them and He equipped me with what I needed even if I run on fumes every day and I have days where I have no idea what to do next. He knew that I had what it takes to raise them as if I were at home, he knew I had what it takes to raise them as a single parent when he gave them to me. Because He already knew that this would be. So single parents don’t sell yourself short either by thinking “If only I could be home to raise my kids” God knew!! He knew you wouldn’t be and while it may not have been his plan for families, He knew you would have what it took to compensate as a single parent. Give your children to God and let Him raise them and trust in what He has given you to equip you for this season and time in your life. Raising kids that fear God is perhaps one of the biggest callings a person can have on their lives and planting those seeds and trusting God to do His perfect will with them. We are responsible for being a part of that and that is huge, and you were chosen for it.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:”
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