It’s interesting, as I’ve been reflecting over this past year… on what’s been both hard and good… I realized that the most difficult times were also the times that brought me the most joy!
Here are a few of them:
1. Enduring pregnancy, labor, and postpartum was the hardest thing I’ve ever done but at the same time, carrying a child and bringing him into the world was the most empowering and magical experience I’ve ever had.
2. Being parents for the first time has completely disrupted our life as we knew it. But holding him in my arms, looking into his eyes, and being able to provide and care for him is a joy that I have never known before.
3. Being forced to stay home for months has tested my patience but has also given me a newfound love for homemaking and quality family time.
It’s been a weird year for sure and even weirder emotionally with becoming a mom for the first time. Some days it has literally felt like I’ve been standing on my head living life upside down (can any other moms relate?)!!
Still, in all the changes that this year brought, this verse has stayed with me:
“See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
For most of us, this year has been a wilderness and a wasteland. But his word tells us, He makes a WAY in the wilderness and STREAMS in the wasteland. His promises are faithful. In all hard times, God is working to provide… Do we have the eyes to perceive it?
I think it’s so cool that God can do this- that He can take the most challenging times and bring such good simultaneously.
In this weird year where I was pulled and stretched in ways I’ve never been before, I also experienced great joy and immense personal growth.
This is only something God can do– this how our God works!
Kaitlyn, I can absolutely relate to the difficult adjustment to becoming parents for the first time! Suddenly, everything changes. I love that you recognize the hardship and balance it out with gratin and joy; He never meant for things to be easy, but the hardship is always redeemed so many times over!
Yes, yes, yes! He’s in it all.
Lovely post, thanks for sharing. Isa 43:19 is one of the scriptures the Lord gave me for 2021!
Oh, such a God thing!! Love that!
I relate to this Kaitlyn! I’ve slowly climbed out of the infant years and now have a 5yo and 3yo. Becoming a parent does weird things to your sense of time, identity, etc, and I can only imagine having a baby in the pandemic makes those aspects even more challenging to navigate. I was studying revival and renewal at the beginning of this year, and this verse stuck with me too! It made me notice that God is always the initiator of revival, renewal, etc (the new things) and that it’s my job to just pay attention to where He is working and praise Him for it. Thank you for this word today!
Wow, so good Lisa! Thank you. Our job to just pay attention to where He is working and praise Him for it- love that!!