October MOPS Coordinator's Article

Fall is a time for change. The leaves change colors; the laid-back summertime routines change to accommodate school schedules; and the way you spend your Saturday mornings certainly change (soccer anyone?).  Above all, let’s not forget about that big change that likes to mess with our bedtime routines two times a year: daylight savings time.

Change can be frustrating! It takes what we have worked hard to establish and leaves us to figure out a new solution. And for mothers of preschoolers, we have to find this new solution while changing diapers, cleaning up highchairs and getting by on years of interrupted sleep. It’s no wonder that as a mom, it’s so easy to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, more often than not. Add to that the stress of the upcoming holiday season and it’s amazing that any of us even manage to get out of bed at all most mornings!

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” God has pre-ordained each of our life’s happenings, both big and small. He knows the day on which He will return for judgment, just as much as he knows the exact timing and duration of seasonal changes in our own families. There is a time for everything and only God knows this timing. We have to trust that He will walk us through these periods of change and that we will get through, no matter how unmanageable life may feel at times. It is during those times when we feel most vulnerable, most out of control, and most overwhelmed that we really learn to rely on Him and put our trust and faith into His judgment and timing.

So as the leaves turn crisp and red; as you sit on the sidelines watching the umpteenth soccer game this season, thinking about all of the other things you should be doing; and as you listen to your child whine when bedtime is an hour earlier now that school has started, know that God has all of this in His master plans. Turning over your calendar and your black pen to Him so that He can do all of His glorious planning, submits your changing life to the only one who will carry you through these changes. With God in charge and doing what is in His will, these seemingly stressful life changes can be fully embraced and will soon become, dare I say it, comfortable. So go ahead and savor this wonderful season of change and any path on which it takes you, knowing that there is no path God would rather walk with you.

Happy fall!