When times are good, be happy;
    but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
    as well as the other.

Ecclesiastes 7:14

When my husband died, my daughter was in fifth grade, and my son was in second.

Last night, we had Open House at school. Micah is now entering fifth grade, and it seems a little surreal.

Three years ago in November, I remember walking my daughter down the wing of the school that held her group of classrooms and their teachers, just one week after their dad was killed in a car accident. I remember what the one male teacher said to me that morning: “We’ll take really good care of Macy, okay?”

I probably mumbled some sort of thanks to him. I was still in a great deal of shock, but I remember being so thankful for blessing both of my kids with loving teachers.

I wouldn’t repeat that year again for all the money in the world!

Almost everything I remember about that time was so so painful.

When you think about it…

It was just “one day”, but the aftershocks from it are still breaking things in each of us, even now.

But it was one day.

We’ve had a lifetime of really great days, but all it takes is one doozy of a bad one to make you feel as though things just aren’t fair.

But then I think of these verses:

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

² A time to be born,
    And a time to die;
A time to plant,
    And a time to pluck what is planted;
³ A time to kill,
    And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
    And a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep,
    And a time to laugh;
a time to mourn,
    And a time to dance;

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

A season can be defined as “a fixed time”. And it’s interesting that the scripture says that there is a season “to everything”. Meaning, there are seasons for trees, flowers, and fruits….basically to ALL of creation….

Including us.

When our circumstances seem so painfully random, we are comforted by the fact that seasons always do one thing:

THEY CHANGE!

This may be your time for things you counted on, trusted in….

To break apart.

Well, then your time to rebuild is coming.

This may be your time to birth something beautiful, or

Maybe it is time to really begin to say goodbye.

This may be your time to mourn, but your time for dancing…

Is COMING!

Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,

Psalm 68:19

No matter what pain gets delivered to our doors, make sure you open ALL the packages! There are God-given benefits lying within them,

Each and every day!

Because of the depth of the painful “bad”, I can truly appreciate the beauty of the “good”.And it forces me to SAVOR that!

To really TASTE it!!

You know, Team Clark( that’s what I call my tiny family, which makes Macy roll her eyes 🙄🤣) is famous for taking little day trips to places that are just a couple of hours away. I used to think we would never have any actual “fun times” anymore…that we would somehow be soured to it by Jeremy’s death. But I was surprised to discover how very much we each valued those times….and could count on those memories to comfort us when it’s our “time to weep” once again.

Maybe because we’ve known great sadness, we can also open ourselves up for great joy!

And that’s the beauty of trusting and believing the God of ALL of my days…

when things seem unfair and so very out of our control, we can choose to remember…

It was ALWAYS in HIS.