Seasons and Seasoning.......
Daniel 2;21 Says this: "He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. and then Leviticus 2:13 says this: "Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings."
The English language has this frustrating tendency to let 2 exact words have such different definitions. I'm thinking of both today so I thought I might share.
Spring time season in Northwest Iowa is ridiculous. One day it snows, the next day the sun shines so hot it leaves sunburned cheeks on pale winter skin. One day it rains, and the next there are rainbows and perennial plants and flowers blooming......the earth turns from brown to Green and the trees go from bare to heavily laden with the buds of leaves......it is both miserable and magical......and it only lasts for a season before it gives way to the fullness of summer. He changes times and seasons. He deposes kings (and presidents) and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise (those who pray and ask for His wisdom, not the foolish who think they already know), and knowledge to the discerning (so lets be discerning, not assuming. Thoughtful, not ignorant. Seekers of knowledge, not know-it-all Christians).
Then in the second verse, is another definition of season.....which was the first one I was considering just now. I filled a pot with water and seasoned it with salt before I dropped in my bow-tie pasta for a comforting, cheezy, ham and pasta bake for dinner tonight. Salt the water before you drop the pasta so that it infuses and distributes evenly. I opened the freezer to get something else out and noticed that one of the chocolate easter bunnies had been stashed away, still in the plastic box, for later. One of my older children is past the age where they devour their Easter chocolate the minute it is given.......and when I told Precious Maryn it was time to get ready for dance, she had even put her own tights and leo on independently, and was dressed and ready to go. We drove to the studio and she got out of the car by herself and ran in with the other older dancers.......we are definitely entering a new season of me realizing I am now a "seasoned" mom.
I still love babies so, so much....but my arms no longer ache for one. (Everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief here!). I am happy to hold and rock and sing to and change another woman's baby and then hand the child back to the mother without longing for that season. I don't miss potty training, or midnight feedings, but there is a melancholy that comes with the seasoning of a mother and tonight, on this dark and rainy spring Tuesday afternoon, I am feeling the seasoning of my time as a mother.
I am seasoned, having been a mother for almost 17 years. I know things that work and things that do not. I have tips and tricks and wisdom and history in this role......and yet when I think of my own mothers, who are far more seasoned than I am, I know that I still have far to go.......and the seasoning is delicate and artistic and authored by the Lord, Himself. I accept this season of seasoning, Father.
I have passed my last experience in childbirth. I nursed a child at breast for the last time. I bought my last pack of diapers (ok, maybe not that.....but you get the point)......I am seasoning as a mother. I am not sad that the chocolate bunny is in the freezer, or that Precious can put tights on by herself....but I am noticing a change in the seasons and today I choose to celebrate and praise the Lord for this. He has been so faithful to me......as a wife, longing for children. As a new mother who was nervous and afraid. He has been faithful on the hard days when another parent called because my child had bullied theirs, and on the good days when I received a compliment for the kindness of my child. He has been faithful in my heart-cry to adopt children, and He has faithfully brought the exactly perfect and necessary children to our family. He has been faithful in our openness to host an international teen and has planted deep, deep seeds of love and friendship and foreverness in that.
Season me, God. Season me with salt and with cinnamon. Season me with garlic and with lemon.....season me with laughter and tears and succeeses and failures.....as I age in this body, I am preserved in the body of Christ under your Lordship. A seasoned mother is becoming my heart-cry and goal here on Earth and until I reach my final day........
The English language has this frustrating tendency to let 2 exact words have such different definitions. I'm thinking of both today so I thought I might share.
Spring time season in Northwest Iowa is ridiculous. One day it snows, the next day the sun shines so hot it leaves sunburned cheeks on pale winter skin. One day it rains, and the next there are rainbows and perennial plants and flowers blooming......the earth turns from brown to Green and the trees go from bare to heavily laden with the buds of leaves......it is both miserable and magical......and it only lasts for a season before it gives way to the fullness of summer. He changes times and seasons. He deposes kings (and presidents) and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise (those who pray and ask for His wisdom, not the foolish who think they already know), and knowledge to the discerning (so lets be discerning, not assuming. Thoughtful, not ignorant. Seekers of knowledge, not know-it-all Christians).
Then in the second verse, is another definition of season.....which was the first one I was considering just now. I filled a pot with water and seasoned it with salt before I dropped in my bow-tie pasta for a comforting, cheezy, ham and pasta bake for dinner tonight. Salt the water before you drop the pasta so that it infuses and distributes evenly. I opened the freezer to get something else out and noticed that one of the chocolate easter bunnies had been stashed away, still in the plastic box, for later. One of my older children is past the age where they devour their Easter chocolate the minute it is given.......and when I told Precious Maryn it was time to get ready for dance, she had even put her own tights and leo on independently, and was dressed and ready to go. We drove to the studio and she got out of the car by herself and ran in with the other older dancers.......we are definitely entering a new season of me realizing I am now a "seasoned" mom.
I still love babies so, so much....but my arms no longer ache for one. (Everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief here!). I am happy to hold and rock and sing to and change another woman's baby and then hand the child back to the mother without longing for that season. I don't miss potty training, or midnight feedings, but there is a melancholy that comes with the seasoning of a mother and tonight, on this dark and rainy spring Tuesday afternoon, I am feeling the seasoning of my time as a mother.
I am seasoned, having been a mother for almost 17 years. I know things that work and things that do not. I have tips and tricks and wisdom and history in this role......and yet when I think of my own mothers, who are far more seasoned than I am, I know that I still have far to go.......and the seasoning is delicate and artistic and authored by the Lord, Himself. I accept this season of seasoning, Father.
I have passed my last experience in childbirth. I nursed a child at breast for the last time. I bought my last pack of diapers (ok, maybe not that.....but you get the point)......I am seasoning as a mother. I am not sad that the chocolate bunny is in the freezer, or that Precious can put tights on by herself....but I am noticing a change in the seasons and today I choose to celebrate and praise the Lord for this. He has been so faithful to me......as a wife, longing for children. As a new mother who was nervous and afraid. He has been faithful on the hard days when another parent called because my child had bullied theirs, and on the good days when I received a compliment for the kindness of my child. He has been faithful in my heart-cry to adopt children, and He has faithfully brought the exactly perfect and necessary children to our family. He has been faithful in our openness to host an international teen and has planted deep, deep seeds of love and friendship and foreverness in that.
Season me, God. Season me with salt and with cinnamon. Season me with garlic and with lemon.....season me with laughter and tears and succeeses and failures.....as I age in this body, I am preserved in the body of Christ under your Lordship. A seasoned mother is becoming my heart-cry and goal here on Earth and until I reach my final day........
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