This year the journey to spring has seemed like two steps forward, one step back, with 75 degree days followed by 12 inches of snow two days later. And right now everything just seems like a big sopping wet mess outside.
It’s pretty much how parenting feels, especially lately. It’s been two steps forward, one step back, sometimes feeling like I am knee-deep in mud and muck. Maybe you’re there, too.
Maybe you have just come out of a hard season with one child, seeing light on the horizon, only to have another one completely fall apart.
Maybe you have a child with a mental illness, disease, or learning disability and after months of doctor’s appointments, teacher conferences, medication changes, therapy, etc. you start to see improvement. Maybe even a few good weeks go by and you start to exhale a little bit and think the worst is behind you, and then suddenly you get the call. Your child has a bad day. A really bad day. And it feels like you’re right back where you were, with no end in sight.
Maybe you have a baby who has been crying for 6 months and not sleeping and you are 100 days past exhausted and weary to your bones. But then 4, 5, 6 nights in a row she sleeps. You sleep! It’s bliss! You start to feel semi-human again. Then on night seven, she screams for six hours straight and you are on the floor next to the crib sobbing with her, wondering how anyone could handle this.
And you’re thinking, “One month! All I want is one month where everything is smooth sailing and everyone is healthy and happy. Is that too much to ask God? Why can’t we catch a break? Why does this keep happening to our family? Why?”
You’re knee-deep in the mud and the muck. And the glimpse of easy, smooth, and happy almost seems cruel if it’s going to be taken away. What’s one warm and sunny day if it’s going to be followed by more bitter cold?
But then, where did we get the idea that parenting is a straight path and you have to choose to either move forward or go backwards? Or that the end of a harsh season signified the beginning of a warm one? Who sold us this picture of parenting? And for goodness sake, why did we buy it?
Parenting, like the weather, is unpredictable.
Seasons come and go, but not in a neat and orderly fashion. God’s word tell us that to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;
a time to get, and a time to lose;
It does not say, however, that the weeping ends when the laughter begins. Or that once you start dancing, there will be no more mourning. Nowhere does God promise that our time of loss will be short and our time of prosperity plentiful. Only that there will be time for both.
Maybe the point is not to simply endure the hard winters of parenting, while you wait for spring to arrive.
Maybe the point is to look for the beauty that can be found in each, knowing that God has promised there is purpose in it all.
This post originally appeared on the Neither Height Nor Depth Facebook Page.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash