There is a Season

The years 2000-2002 I was busy.

The first year, I was attending religion classes Tuesday and Thursdays, sometimes driving an hour or more to get to each class. On Wednesday nights I was doing volunteer work at the LDS Temple in Washington, DC for four hours. I was working full time, and trying to also have a social life. Plus I still had to do laundry and keep the house semi-clean.

The second year I was serving as a Ward Missionary, teaching a Sunday School class, teaching a Wednesday night religion class, working full time, and doing laundry and keeping the house semi-clean.

That was my season of learning, growing, and immersing myself in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2003 was very different. I spent the first 9 months of it pregnant and miserable. I did no volunteer work, held no assignments at church, went to the temple once, had to give up working full time after six months, and I'm pretty sure my husband did most of the laundry and cleaning.

It was the start of a different season - one immersed in raising a little boy (and later a little girl) and learning what it meant to me to be a wife and mother.

I've struggled, since that two year period, to recapture the personal spirituality that I felt. I simply don't have the same amount of time to devote to studying the scriptures, personal prayer, and temple work. And then I read the following article a week or so ago on Segullah.org that was very comforting.

Parable of the Grape Tree

God knows where I am in life and what I am trying to do. Even if my prayers are given while half-asleep and I am 10 minutes from a temple, He finds ways to tell me that there is a season for everything. Someday my kids will be grown (or at least not need babysitters) and there will be time again for doing extra volunteer work, extra scripture study, and I will be able to go to the temple twice a week if I feel like it. But, for now, my children are my work and my glory, and that is enough.