A time for everything

Today, I attended the funeral service for a friend of mine that I've known since middle school. Jimmy had cystic fibrosis and fought the good fight up to the very end. Jimmy was catholic and we attended the memorial mass for him this morning. One of the readings from the service today came from Ecclesiastes chapter 3. The verses that stuck out to me particularly were the following:

          1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

          2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

What struck me most was the second verse. Not the "time to die" part, but the "time to be born" part. It got me thinking about my baby and her time. Her time to be be born is now. Matt and I had our struggle with getting pregnant, and just when I was about to give up, I found out about our little pinto bean.

For so long, I had been asking God, "Why not now?" I could not see at the time, blinded as I was by baby fever, that it was not the best time. The time for our daughter to be born was not a year ago or even this month. Her time is soon to come and not a moment sooner. Looking back, I can understand that it wasn't yet my season to be a mother. I just couldn't understand that, while my impatient heart was yearning for something I seemingly couldn't have. It just wasn't her time... yet.

And that is the hardest part sometimes. Understanding that we don't live on our time schedule. We live on God's. Just as my daughter's time is soon to come, so too, was it Jimmy's time to lay his mortal life by and return to our Father in Heaven; to breathe easy in the presence of God and Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I know that God has a plan and a purpose for all of us, but there is a season for everything. And often the periods between seasons are the hardest to get through. But patience and dedication are the only ways we can get from one season to the next. We have to be patient with ourselves, and know that God will provide a way, even if it doesn't seem clear to us at the time. It's been a hard lesson to learn, and I'm not sure I've learned it fully yet. I just pray that I will have the patience to wait for those seasons and be able to rejoice in them, even if it seems hard or near impossible. Like Elder Jeffery R. Holland says in the following video, "Trust God, and believe in good things to come."



I want to bear my testimony of Christ and His love. He gives it freely to all those who seek Him. And if we continually seek after Christ, our lives will be blessed and uplifted to that of the Divine. I know my Savior lives and I say these things, in Jesus' name, amen.