Seasons of Life

Years ago, Kregg and I listened to a seminar by Gregg Harris on homeschooling. One of the sessions was on the seasons of our lives and it left an indelible mark on us. My sweet husband preached this morning because our pastor is out of town. We are in the middle of a series of lessons on healthy families, so Kregg decided to talk about the lessons we learned from that seminar.

Harris outlined our lives this way:
1. The Season of Preparation
2. The Season of Production
3. The Season of Provision
4. The Season of Protection

The Season of Preparation could also be called the season of the child. During this season, the primary responsibility is to study, learn, and prepare. This season encompasses our growing up years, the years spent during our childhood and on into becoming young adults. It is a time that should be focused on learning how to learn and walking in the responsibilities given to us in our families. This is the time when we learn about the blessings of being under authority. Those lessons, learned at the feet of our parents, are critical to having a right relationship to authority in each of the other seasons. If we pay attention and focus well on learning the lessons tied into this season, it facilitates the success of later seasons. 

The Season of Production focuses on the building of our households and careers. During this season, for most people, marriage and children, and establishing a way to support them is the focus. This is an intense time and requires focused attention, if it is to be done well. Everything we allow in this season needs to be focused on building in these areas. This is a critical time for families. It is a time when it can be very easy to become distracted or out of balance in our responsibilities. 

Too often, parents in this season allow too many things to make it onto the family calendar. We must exercise much wisdom in discerning those activities that actually bear fruit in our families and in the character of our children, versus those activities that are simply done because everyone else does them. Our children do not need twenty-seven extra curricular activities to make them "well-rounded." We shouldn't be helping with every single ministry opportunity at church. What our children need during these formative years is lots and lots of hours with their parents and their family. This is the time where parents are able to sow the most seeds into those young hearts. Do not miss it by being too busy.

The Season of Provision, also called the season of the elder, is the time in our lives when our homes and jobs are well established and flourishing. And if we have come through the previous two seasons faithfully, this is the time the Lord will broaden our ministry to those outside our immediate family. Notice that it is the Lord Who is to broaden our ministry. It is not our job! During this season, the experience and wisdom earned and learned in the previous two seasons give us the credibility and empathy to be able to mentor the next generation coming behind us as parents. This is the season to help build into the lives of others and to strongly support the Body in leadership roles.

The Season of Protection is also called the season of the "city father." This is the time of life when most people "retire" for leisurely pursuits. But, this is actually the time when we can bear the most fruit of all. Having grown in wisdom and experience through the previous three seasons, the influence wielded as a "city father" is immense. This role is absolutely critical to the life of the Body. Without godly people in this position in the Body, the whole church suffers. 

Look at the vision that is cast for us through the life of Job and his faithful fulfillment of this role:

Job 29:7-17

⁷ “When I went to the gate of the city
   and took my seat in the public square,
⁸ the young men saw me and stepped aside
   and the old men rose to their feet;
⁹ the chief men refrained from speaking
   and covered their mouths with their hands;
¹⁰ the voices of the nobles were hushed,
   and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
¹¹ Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
   and those who saw me commended me,
¹² because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
   and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
¹³ The one who was dying blessed me;
   I made the widow’s heart sing.
¹⁴ I put on righteousness as my clothing;
   justice was my robe and my turban.
¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind
   and feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy;
   I took up the case of the stranger.
¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the wicked
   and snatched the victims from their teeth. 

Job had arrived at this season of his life through great trials. Because he trusted the Lord through each of the previous seasons, he was now held in great honor. His scope of influence was huge.  Job was the one who protected the helpless. He was the one who was looked to to uphold justice. A dying man would bless him because that man knew his widow and children would be taken care of by Job.

This is what each of us is to aspire to. Unfortunately, those who are truly able to walk out this season of the "city father" are rare. Too many are derailed in one of the earlier seasons and never again regain the vision for where the Lord wants to take them.

We each need to ask the Lord to help us understand our season. If we have missed any of the prerequisite lessons for where we are in life, He will "tutor" us so that we can catch up. But we have to recognize what needs to happen. We have to ask Him for wisdom. He is so Faithful. But we have to pay attention. I am convinced that one of the most effective tools used by the evil one to render His People ineffective is to tempt us to get our seasons of life out of balance. It can sound very holy to step into a position of leadership and great responsibilities in the Body when we are still in the season of Production. This takes the parents out of the home at the most crucial time for their children.

Billy Sunday was a famous traveling preacher. He became a Christian during a road trip when he was playing ball for the White Sox in the early 1900s. When he left baseball, he became the "Billy Graham" of his time. Over the course of his 39 years in ministry, he preached to over 100 million people and more than 1 million of them became Christians. 

But his children were casualties of his lack of understanding of the seasons of our lives. While his children were young, he and his wife would take months long preaching trips, leaving their children in the care of others. During those crucial years when they needed their parents so desperately, those parents were away from the home for ministry. All but one of their children ended up destroying their lives through their wrong choices. When word got out that his own children were in this condition, Billy's ministry imploded. He spent the last few years preaching in small country venues. His reputation was destroyed because he had not first provided for the needs of his own family.

I Timothy 5:8 says this: 

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

If only Billy Sunday had postponed the expansion of his ministry until his first responsibilities were fulfilled, who knows how many more he would have been able to influence. Near the end of his life, even after all the successes, he asked his wife where he had gone wrong. He had learned, bitterly, that the true measure of the success of a man is the contentment of his wife and the character of his children.

Psalm 90:12

Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.