As I get ready to start this blog post, I take a deep breath and memories from the past 10 years wash over me. Just a little over 10 years ago, I was a single high school French teacher in rural Indiana. In the past 10 years, I have adopted a child, gotten married, had two more children, started a new teaching job, quit the job, started a business, sold the business, gone back into teaching, moved to Norway, and started a career in an international school. Whew! It makes me tired just listing it. 

As you may have guessed from that list, I am a do-er. And often I get frustrated by the fact that I am not ‘do’ing more. I want to have 100 blog posts and 10,000 readers and start mentoring teachers on financial freedom, all while being a perfect, involved mom, creating enthralling lessons, and making dinner from scratch every night. I mean, come on, that’s not too much to ask, is it?

OK, um, maybe it is. A little.

Yes, I want all those things, but I will also admit to being happier than I have ever been in my life because of one question that I learned to ask myself during the continual change that has defined my life for the past 10 years.

So here it is:

Is it forever, or for a season?

When I’m struggling with something that I really want to do, but can’t seem to get it done, I ask myself “Is this forever, or for a seaon?”

Maybe I’m trying to get ahead on my blog posts (true story, at the moment) and I’m relying on a lot of convenience foods (which I HATE to do). But I ask, “Is it forever, or for a seaon?” And it is for a season. I know because I usually cook dinner, but right now I’ve got to get a little bit ahead on blogging. So no, it’s not forever. I can give myself some grace. And my kids can cope with the flavored cardboard that passes for frozen pizza here in Norway.

Or we are trying to get a house on the market so we can move to Norway with three kids. And I have to stop working on my beloved blog. Not cut down on it. Stop. Completely. But is it forever or for a season? Well, as you can tell by the one year gap in my posts, it was a few seaons, but it was NOT forever.

It depends on priorities. And those change and shift constantly. And you know what? That’s OK. More than OK, that’s life. And the sooner we give ourselves a bit of grace, the sooner we’ll have the courage to get up and dust ourselves off after those ‘seasons’ that are going to happen one way or the other.

With that said, I’m going to go read to my son, because that stuff, that’s forever! And as you go through this thing called life, remember: You’ve got this!