Guest Post: At the End of Every Winter

I am honored and delighted to have my friend Becky guest posting today! Her blog, Time Out: Devotions for Moms, continually inspires me. As a wife and mother, I relate so well (honestly, it’s uncanny!) to the topics she covers, from trying to remember that husbands have jobs of their own to finding comfort in the fact that somewhere in the world, another mother is sitting in a rocker at 2am. If you need to take a deep breath every Monday morning, do it with Becky. Now on to her post!

Oh, how I love to see sidewalk chalk on my driveway again. Our corner of the world is basking in an
unseasonably warm stretch, and last week I revisited the jubilation of neighbor kids running through the
yard, jackets thrown, chasing after bubbles with eager hands and carefree smiles.

Freedom! We can breathe again.

Wisconsin would be paradise if not for a little hiccup called winter. For six months of the year, our
playgrounds stand deserted while cabin-feverish children scatter toys across the house and beg for hot
cocoa. Sure, hearty moms like me bundle up to build snowmen and pull sleds, but come February I’m so
ready for a patch of green grass.

Last year, snow covered our lawn until May.

Yes, May.

So you can understand why a 70-degree breeze in mid-March makes a Midwest mom as giddy as a
kindergartener at recess. God gave us a reprieve! Praise the Lord! I shed my gloves, turned my face
toward the thawing sun, and remembered—at the end of every winter comes spring.

Hope emerges from mud puddles.

Gloom gives way to warmth and light.

Are you stuck in a kind of winter right now? Marriage slumps, baby blues, money woes, loneliness—
bleak seasons of the heart wear many guises. They can chill our joy, our courage, our outlook. It’s
natural to want out, to dream of escaping to a tropical island. But for all its hardship, there is beauty
hidden in the deep freeze. Our blessings take on greater clarity in the context of affliction.

So I wonder. Could it be that one of the reasons God gives us winter is so we’ll appreciate his gift of
spring?

For today, I’m relishing the comeback of stroller walks and tricycles. And I’m not going to fret about our
pal Frosty returning to town next week, covering my hopscotch board with a layer of fluffy white stuff.
Because I know God has a talent for melting snow banks and raising dandelions in their place.

What is your winter? Will you wait on Him to restore your spring?

Read more from Becky at Time Out: Devotions for Moms.