In Every Season...

"In every season, in every circumstance,
His grace is sufficient for me."

This is the beautiful artwork we now see many times a day on our September calendar. The quote is from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth's book Lies Women Believe: and the Truth that Sets them Free.

When the calendar flips to September, I always feel the shift accompanying the beginning of a new school year. Even with very few students during this illness, my year is clearly defined by the school calendar. 

This year I am making new goals for the school season - including returning to a bit of "school" myself! I ordered boxes of exciting curriculum and have begun to work through a self-imposed assignment each day or two. While my daily abilities are still unpredictable, this is a big mile-marker after years of being unable to read and process anything at depth and being unable to count on consistent strength to set any sort of schedule. 

More about my studies another time. For now, I was struck with another devotional from Jan Markell's book Waiting for a Miracle.

"'One day at a time' certainly has the ring of a cliche, and yet it is a mandatory philosophy with which the afflicted must come to terms. For now, long-range goals must be set aside. Even short-range plans must be put on the back burner, for our lives are temporarily on hold. Again the reality of illness underscores the limited power we have over our lives.

"Like toddlers we take a few small steps forward each day and try to relish the moments. By focusing on one day at a time, eventually we can look back and we are amazed at how far we've come on this bumpy road. No, it's certainly not the rat race speed of modern time... Rather, it's being content to deal with the immediate, and that is a foreign way of life to nearly everyone.

"Hope for tomorrow must be there, but the focus of attention must be on today. Yesterday is gone; tomorrow is not yet ours. Rather, "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" - Psalm 118:24"