Discerning The Times and Seasons

This may seem like a strange topic to be discussing on a site dedicated to mothers "praying for their children".  However, I do believe as with everything else, this topic is just as important to mothers as to everyone else.  If as mother we are unable to discern times and seasons, then we will be left either expecting things when it is not the time for it or when the time is come for making a move we miss it.  For the next couple of weeks I will discuss this topic of “discerning the Times and the seasons” as it is impossible to do so in just one post.

The relationship that we have with our children do go through various seasons, there is the season as a mother when our children are totally dependent on us for everything, then there is the season, where they become partially dependent where they can do some things for themselves but are still dependent on us for some things and this season sometimes last very long and may extend beyond their graduation from college.  There is another season when they become independent and leave home to live on their own, get married and start their own family.  

We need to recognize these times of transition or changes of the seasons so we will know how to behave accordingly.  There are times when we try to continue to manage their lives and interfere when instead we need to step back some.  This only creates problems with our relationship with them, but it causes us to become frustrated.  It is like seeking a harvest when it is winter.

Throughout the bible there are many references to times and seasons.  I will not be able to discuss all these references but will discuss some and give you references for others that you can read at your leisure.

Hosea 4: 6 states: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 

The word “destroyed” here means to perish, cease, be cut down, destroy, be brought to silence, be undone.  The word “knowledge” in the Hebrew means: awareness, cunning. 

In other words people are being cut down, and silenced because of a lack of awareness.

Discerning the time and seasons was challenged by Jesus himself in Luke 12.

Luke 12: 54-56: And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.  And when [ye see] the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. And when [ye see] the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.  Ye] hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?  

From this passage we see where Jesus was rebuking the people for being able to read the signs in the heaven in terms of what kind of day it will be whether it will be rainy or windy, or hot, however they still were unable to discern the signs that God was showing them regarding the coming of the messiah.  Before we criticize these people, many of us are in the same position, where we are not able to see what God is showing to us.

Do you know what God is saying to you as a mother?  Can you recognize the signs that He is trying to show to you? Do you realize that It is impossible to know God’s way of doing things unless we have a spiritual discernment of the times or “seasons” that we are in.  

Stay tuned for the remainder of this dialogue!.

In His Service,

Vilma