Welcome to the first official Girls to Grow blog post of 2024! I hope your new year is off to a good start.
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I’ve just finished reading a great book, my first one of the new year. It came from my dad’s library and was literally falling apart. There were lots of loose pages that I had to stick back in at their right spot 🙂 I enjoyed it so much that I’ve now ordered a new copy for myself.
The book is titled Acts of God: Why Does God Allow So Much Pain? by Bob Russell with Rob Suggs. It’s kind of a reframing of the age-old question, “If God is good, why do bad things happen?” The authors follow the life of Joseph from Genesis and use the ups and downs in his life to demonstrate the truths they outline in the book.
I love this quote from the book.
Whatever season of life you’re moving through right now, God is with you. He is using this moment to prepare you for another time or another opportunity. Neither tough times nor tender ones last forever. But the purposes of God are eternal.
I think this is so fitting to consider as we’re starting a new year. We’re each in different seasons of life. You could be single, newly married, parenting small children, empty-nesting, or in your later years of life.
Below I’ve listed five tips we can use to embrace our life season, whatever it looks like, in the coming year. I’ve partnered each one with a Bible verse for us to consider.
1. Recognize that each life season has its blessings and difficulties.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ~Ecclesiastes 3:1
You probably know how the rest of that passage goes. A time to be born, a time to die. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance, and so on.
Whatever season we’re in, there are good parts about it. I’m in the empty-nest season. I love having a lot of time for my husband and me to do things together. Yet there are times I miss being able to see our daughters as often as I did when they lived at home. But I’m so happy that they are thriving in the places God has them for now.
It’s okay to sit in those conflicting emotions. Acknowledge the difficulties, count the blessings, and see how God will work where you are.
2. Remember that God is with you in every season.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. ~ Hebrews 13:5
That’s a promise. It doesn’t matter if you feel like God is with you where you are or not. He is there.
3. Realize that God is using this season to prepare us for the next one.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. ~Jeremiah 29:11
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: ~Philippians 1:6
What a blessing to realize that God has a plan! He’s not randomly directing our lives based on a whim.
Whether it’s a blessing or a trial, each one is sent to teach us something about God and how he works. We won’t be ready for the next opportunity if we’re not learning from the situation God has us in now.
4. Rest in knowing that God’s purposes are eternal.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. ~2 Corinthians 4:17-18
We see the here and now. He sees forever. What God is accomplishing in this season is for our good and his glory here, but also with a long-term focus that we may not understand.
5. Respond to what God is doing in our lives by yielding to and trusting in His plan.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; ~Philippians 2:13-15
I may not always like God’s plan; I’m pretty fond of my own, and they may not always match up. I might want things to happen faster or play out differently. But I’m called to have faith, to trust God no matter what.
I hope that these tips will help all of us move into this year with peace and contentment.
I’d love to hear something you’re currently loving in the life season you’re in! Let me know in the comments or click on the “Contact Me” tab at the top of the blog and send me an email.
Related posts:
- 7 Helpful Tips for Navigating a Season of Change
- 5 Things to Remember in a Season of Waiting
- Two Things I Need in This Season of Motherhood (warning: a real throwback photo 🙂
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