It’s been a tough
week! On Sunday our Pastor of many
years, shared he was retiring and the same day a prominent family in the church
shared they were moving across country!
Add to that, I had news a friend’s plans were completely turned upside
down and all I could do was write in my journal: “The hits keep coming!"
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| https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+in+my+life+for+a+reason |
I am an emotional person
who cries when sad. So Sunday I
cried! I cried for the loss I was
feeling for our amazing and kind Pastor, and for the family I’d also grown to
love. And then I cried on Tuesday for
the grief my friend was bearing! Another
friend sent me this message a couple days later concerning a conversation we
were having discussing our tears. “I believe that means that although our hearts are fragile,
they are still pliable and not hard – and that the Lord’s touch can shape us
into something brand new, according to His will and His timing. And that’s a
blessing, even though the squeezing and forming by His loving hands can seem
unbearable.” What a profound thought!
Even as
the tears of loss engulf me, I am grateful for those people God puts in my
life, even when they seem snatched away without any regard to my feelings! (It really isn’t about me at all anyway–or it
shouldn’t be!) Lives change, people
grow and move on. But isn’t it wonderful
that while these precious people are in my life I can lean on them, learn from
them, grow and mostly love.
There’s a quote I’ve seen many
times about people being in your life for a “season.” I’ve included at the end of this post the
poem, “Reason, Season, Lifetime” (author unknown) which is likely the source of
the quote.
Even
though I know it to be truth, I am still always amazed at how God works out
details in my life through other people.
I can’t always see the immediate impact, but very often as I reflect on
the situation, days, weeks or months later, I can say, “God sent this person to get me through this
problem.” Or “God placed this person
in my life as a roadblock to something else that wasn’t right, or to teach me
something I needed to know.”
Another
friend made this comment recently: “When
it comes to the things of God and the way He works things out, that gets me
speechless.” We serve an awesome God who
knows the beginning from the end and can see the whole picture! We only see life through a narrow tunnel and
form opinions, conclusions and make decisions based on what we see.
All
that said, I’m the first to admit waiting to see ‘what comes next’ is
excruciatingly difficult. In general
terms I consider myself a fairly patient person, yet when faced with pain and
life altering decisions I’m not so patient!
I want to know the answer yesterday!
I want to see the plan; the course of action needed to make things work
out and learn if it’s going to have a happy ending! (I like fairy tales!) It doesn’t always have a happy ending
though. Life isn’t like that. That’s why God sends people into our lives to
help us through the briars and brambles that would threaten to choke the life
blood out us.
I’m
grateful I have a God who knows my heart: when it’s happy and when it’s
breaking. With great effort on my part, I desperately want God to touch and
shape me into the brand new person I can become, even while the “squeezing and
forming” of said heart, by His loving hands can seem unbearable. The idea that God is still “working” on me is
somehow comforting. The idea that people
touch my life as they pass through is also comforting. That said, for each person I have known, I
thank you, with the full knowledge you were put in my life for reason!
Reason, Season, Lifetime
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a
lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is,
you
will know what to do for each person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty;
to provide you with guidance and support;
to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are.
They
are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an
inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the
relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our
desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The
prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON,
because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe
it. It is real. But only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
things you must build upon in order to have a solid
emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person,
and put what you have learned to use in all other
relationships and areas of your life.
It
is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
— Unknown
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