Posted in Spiritual Life

The snow is piled up to the windowsills, the air is still frosty, and even though the calendar says spring is coming soon, it's hard to believe.  Seeing the metal sap buckets hanging from the maple trees near our house, however, is giving me a glimmer of hope.  Though the sap isn't running steadily yet, it won't be long until my husband is sitting in the sap shack, a fire on the hearth, the boiling pan full of maple syrup-in-the-making.

A change in season (or at least the anticipation of one in this case) always seems to put me in a relective mood.  I often think back over the previous season, and find myself looking over the events of the past year.  Lately, I've been doing a lot of this kind of reflecting.  Several defining moments have taken place since last winter, and the Lord has put my family on some unexpected paths in recent months.  At times, it feels as if we are in a holding pattern.  I find it hard to trust and wait on the Lord and on my husband.  At the same time, I am realizing that my loving Heavenly Father is trying to teach me something.  I wonder if it would be easier if I knew what it is I'm supposed to be learning.

I know He wants me to learn to be patient.  I also think He wants me to learn to be forgiving and compassionate, even when hurt.  He wants me to look to Him for strength and to lean on my husband for guidance.  And, as hard a lesson as it has been, I think He wants me to learn that others may hurt, betray, or even shun us, but He is "a friend that sticks closer than a brother".

I'm sure there are other lessons, but these seem to be the most important, and the ones I am struggling with the most right now.

I'm ready for a break in the weather, a change in the seasons.  Hoping for it won't bring it any sooner, though.  Better to sit back and let it come when it will.  And keep hoping for it anyway.