Everything is made beautiful in its time

{Ecclesiastes 3:1-11}

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace. 

What does a worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

I have been toying with all kinds of ideas lately with my faith versus the faith that I grew up with. My church was extremely conservative and never mentioned walking with God by listening to the Holy Spirit. And actually learning to hear God through your prayers and thoughts. It has been a weird transition for me to be a part of a church that is so wrapped up in God and praising him with everything they have, that they don't even notice how you are praising him. No judgement is made, you are just accepted with your own personal worship styles. No one is congratulating you on your faith or making awkward comments that they are "proud of you for your faith," or anything else to take away from the fact that all of the attention should be on GOD, and not on me. That discussions about church, faith, and Jesus should be centered around him, and not me. I was talking to my sister a while ago and we were both talking about how we have developed "church complexes" that make us uncomfortable talking to people we are close to about our faith because we don't want to be glorified for our comments. We want an honest discussion, but somehow it gets turned back around to us, and in turn makes us not want to talk to anyone about our faith.

I have been struggling with that a lot lately and have finally realized that perhaps Satan is using that to keep me quiet. Even though there are a few people that I don't want to discuss my faith with because it's awkward, doesn't mean I need to be quiet in general...or that I don't need to do it anyway. There is a time for everything, for silence and for sharing...for awkwardness and for joy. I am choosing joy, to share my Lord with those that I love and those that I don't know well. Hopefully it will be received well and even if the conversation turns back to me I will be able to handle it and not get angry.