Putting Away Grief for Joy

So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting. Ecclesiastes 11:10 NASB

At the beginning of the Summer, I wanted to memorize this verse. I drew a few things that represented a “fleeting” concept and popped the picture on my refrigerator. I’ve read it just about everyday and prayed for God to help me live in the grace and truth of this verse.

My son turned two in June. I know his childhood is fleeting. So for me, this verse is a challenge to keep in proper perspective the things that bring grief and anger to my heart. I don’t want to be an upset mommy who misses the sweetness of this gift.

The places I have grown from, if not kept in their proper place, threaten to color my view with much grief. In fact, these recent months, circumstances have reshuffled emotions once processed and filed. And so I had to begin again with the Lord. Processing, praying, and “putting away” as the Scripture says. Because the sweet spots in life are just too short and too few to let anger and grief dance all over the good stuff.

My little man loves to play outside. I mean LOVES it! Give him some bubbles, a little water to splash in, some sidewalk chalk and the world is golden. We were playing outside when my heart was aching a bit, I remember my boy looking up at me and seeing the ache. I didn’t mean to let him see it. Right now he has sunshine and starlight inside his little heart, and I didn’t want a moment of anything other than that for him. Life ahead has enough moonless nights. Childhood was meant for fireflies and blue skies.

So I took a deep breath, blew the solution on the bubble wand, and watched the multicolored spheres drift up into the sky. As I exhaled, I prayed that God would remove my heaviness of heart. I watched the reddish-brown curls leap into the air, chubby little hands outstretched to catch the bubbles, squeals of delight. If I let myself, there was more than enough joy in this simple moment to wash over the pain of yesterday. More than enough.

A few weeks into the Summer, a more seasoned woman commented that I was in “the prime of my life” and my thoughts turned back to my verse. Was I in the prime of life? I’d tucked the verse into my heart for the good of my boy. But maybe we shared the seasons mentioned in the words?

I remember being told high school was supposed to be the prime of life. Thank the Lord it has gotten better since those days! In my thirties, I might be in the prime of life. But, my husband’s grandma said something once that gives me hope for a little different prime of life. She said she and her husband were the happiest they had been in their whole lives together. Sharing life in their eighties was the happiest season so far. They had time to enjoy one another, wisdom to do it, and enough health and wealth for life to be simply sweet. There weren’t stressful disagreements, or deadline pressures. Just the two of them and their family. Maybe, if we walk with the Lord rightly, growing in grace and wisdom, each day we live could be our “prime of life,” until our address is in heaven, and we are truly and forever in the best of life.

Regardless of whether you are young or seasoned, busy and racing or still and quiet, I pray that you too would take these words into your heart. Put away the things that rob at the goodness of soul Christ came to give you. Lay on the grass and watch the clouds. Blow some bubbles with your kid. Outline each other with chalk and giggle as you do it. Let the breeze dance over your face. Life is fleeting. Let’s not miss it.