I was reflecting this morning on my current stage of life. My oldest just turned 12 and is on the verge of joining our church’s teen group. I realized last night that later this month will be the last time he sings with the children’s choir in church. Last month, he had his last board game activity with King’s Kids, the children’s church group. He raced his car in his final pinewood derby at Christian school this past week. While these final events make me a bit nostalgic, I would not wish to hold him back as he ages out of these things. It does make me consider the limited time I have left with him as a child.
As I reflected, I thought about what the Bible says concerning time and stages of life. The first passage that came to mind was Ecclesiastes 3:1: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Solomon continued the rest of the chapter by listing the times for various things—birth, death, laughter, weeping, planting, harvesting, etc. In my life, there also have been specific life stages— child, teenager, young adult, new wife, mother of young children, and now mother of school-aged children. Each of these stages were unique, and each of these were “for a time.” Grasping for the next life chapter robbed me of the joy of the stage which I was presently experiencing. During my years as a single lady, I wished badly to be married instead of just enjoying the freedom I had being single. (For the record, it was when I finally decided to be content about being single that God brought my husband into my life.)
I also realize I cannot return to a previous life stage. I can only imagine the horror that would be on my son’s face if I were to try to give him a pacifier and rock him to sleep! In my life, I must be careful not to get so enthralled with a past stage of my life that I keep trying to reach back to it. I hope I learned what God had for me while I was in those previous life stages. I want to look back on the lessons learned and to praise God for the promises fulfilled and the prayers answered. With that thought, those things I learned should be an encouragement for me to want to continue learning and growing in my current stage of life. A helpful truth that can be applied in any stage, each having its unique worries and uncertainties, is one I learned in a difficult time financially during my first year of marriage: If God took care of us then, He can take care of us now.
I Corinthians 13:11 says, When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. As I watch my son begin to put away some of these childish things, I am reminded that I am responsible to be fully engrossed in the stage where God has me. I must also allow my son to be in the stage where God has placed him. I am not planning for his high school graduation quite yet, but neither am I mourning the end of my son’s elementary school years. I am going to enjoy this stage and each moment of it.
Ladies, let us be content in the stage where God has placed us.
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. – Philippians 4:11
by Vicki Voorhis
