seasons of life – Growing Up, God, and Being Busy

Me squished in the back seat with all my stuff on move-in day.

I will post more on these things later. I just want to get these things out and explain them more when I have a clearer mind.

1. Communication is not just essential for love relationships- but for every relationship as well.

From learning to communicate with new friends to disputes with roomates, I’ve learned that in order to get things done and to achieve what you need, you need to communicate. Gossip, hinting, and nagging is not going to get anyone anywhere.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. ~Matthew 5:23 NIV

2. Being engaged is… weird.

I’ve been engaged to my best friend for 6 months (oh, goodness, has it really been that long?!). And it’s odd… not with my fiance but with others. Suddenly you are the go to gal for relationship advice, even if you are only 18. Simultaneously, people start chucking advice at you. And if you mention that you are waiting till after college to actually get married, you are automatically insane.

3. Life gets harder, and easier.

I really enjoy living in the dorms. It’s quiet, I never have to wait for the bathroom, and all my friends are a floor away. I never have to watch children and I can be alone whenever I want.

But the enemy is very angry once you get to Bible College. And he’s gonna pull out all the stops to try to get you to leave.

On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased. ~Psalm 138:3 ESV

4. Being Transparent is Important

I have always been told showing emotions and sharing struggles is a sign of weakness. But suffering alone is not be an option. God doesn’t want us to bottle everything up, He wants us to live freely. And living freely doesn’t include wearing a mask or hiding skeletons in the closet.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ~James 5:16

5. And most of all… God’s not finished with me yet.

I have a lot of struggles. I am still learning who I am. My life is complete changing. But you know what, that’s okay. Because I serve a God who is never surprised and never stops.

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 1:6

Comment your thoughts and remind me to explain further! Thank you for reading!

God bless

Lillian ❤

Happy Sunday! I pray all of you are having a wonderful and blessed day of rest and fellowship!

For me, church today was great! We had an immensely powerful worship time, and a lot of Thanksgiving/Christmas season ministries are starting to begin in my church ( I love this season, a time I call the season of how-we-shoud-always-be, I think this annual time is kind of a reminder of how we should always be, thankful and generous while being mindful of Jesus in our lives). But my Pastor’s message really hit home this morning, it got me really thinking.

My Pastor, who’s blog you can find here shared a message he titled, “Take Your Turn” about the seasons of life. “Season of life” is an often-used Christian-ese when change has occurred, or isn’t occurring. I am going through a different season of life myself, which a reason for this blog. Seasons of life are shown in Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

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 from embracing,
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.

My season of life that I am experiencing is a season of overwhelming business and time rapidly passing, as well as challenges and new responsibilities. But the biggest difference in this season is that sometimes I don’t feel God at all; I’m not feeling close to Him as I used to, and I’m trying to return to that, which can be like an uphill battle or swimming upstream.

But the main thing about negative seasons of life that my Pastor talked about is when we ask “Why me, God?” Pretty much every Christian has asked God this at some point in their lives. My Pastor responded to this with another question, “Why not you?”

Everyone goes through season, both good and bad, either a “good” person or not. We all need to take our turns going through the bad season of life, because the good season are temporary. Eventually, we will be brought from the peak to the valley, and we will be in a bad season again. However, the bad season are just as temporary as the good ones. Sometimes in the bad seasons we forget that eventually, the Valley of the Shadow of Death has an end and you can come out of it.

With this temporariness in our minds, think: should we let this season, good or best, go to waste? In the good times, I might want to just sit back and relax, but I shouldn’t waste God’s blessing on me by just lounging around, which I am guilty of doing before. I have to take God’s blessing and invest in it, so it benefits me for an eternity.

And in the bad times, I will probably always return to my human nature and ask “Why God?”. Well, sometimes I might believe that I am in the Valley because God is not punishing me. But whether or not I’ve been “good” or not- I will eventually reach a bad season of life no matter what I do. So why did God bring me here?

Well, usually God is trying to do something that we all have heard of before- “God will make my test into a testimony.” God often uses seasons, both good and bad, to teach us something and to change us in some way.

Remembering that we don’t want to waste any season God brings us to, my Pastor spoke three moves we are given to take in a season of life, so we don’t waste a lesson or a blessing:

Transforming you and teaching you. Like I said before, God wants to teach us, bringing us as coal through pressure and flames to make us a valuable diamond. In the good season, we should be transformed in thankfulness, praising God more for the blessings He’s given us. In the bad times, we should be transformed in holiness, not in a “be a better Christian” way, but in a way that brings us closer to God.
Tethering you back to the church. Our seasons should bring us back and closer to the church. In the good season, I’ve experienced a sudden enjoyment and interest in the church, praising Him more and not getting bored in the church. In the bad seasons, we need to run to God, because with Him we can be stronger and He will work everything out for us if we give it all to Him. And after these seasons, we are anointed to pray and help others in bad season like the ones we were in.
Strengthen your testimony to the community. God will change our tests into a testimony. both seasons can increase the power of our message to others, and we have a responsibility to tell our message to others.

For myself, this makes me think deeply about the season I am going through. I believe the main reason God is putting me in this season is because He is preparing me for my future as both a Bible college student and a pastor. I’m going to be busy and stressed a lot, and I need to learn how to deal with that now. I also feel this distance between God and I and it’s inspiring me to change that.

For personal changes, I believe this season is to teach me to be more independent and strong, to be more thankful, and to still keep on the smile and the faith when things aren’t going my way. I was talking to my boyfriend about this yesterday- when we met 2 years ago, he fell for me because of how strong and independent I was and how I knew who I was and didn’t let anyone tell me otherwise. But we both feel that I have started to fade away from that. I feel like God is trying to bring me back to that independence and strength though my boyfriend being away at college. To take action with this, I’m going to start reading my book by Joyce Meyer on a confident woman more and pray that God will strengthen me.

Also, I know I can grow sour when I am stressed out recently. I need to work on this, I shouldn’t be rude to others and look past my hard times and keep going through the world suck.

I also am going to be getting more involved in ministries. I have had this one idea for a small ministry for a while now, and I think I am going to pray into it and try to put it together for real. Plus, I want to get really involved in more ministries at my church this season. I want to post some blogs about the charities and ministries I partake in and encourage you guys to participate too.

Well, in one long post, that was my Sunday. How was your Sunday morning? Anything new God has been speaking to you?