This too shall pass

You know that phase of working out when you decide to finally listen to all of those personal trainers and add some weight training because you know that it will benefit your life in so many ways?

1.  You'll burn more calories throughout the day because muscle burns more than fat.
2.  You'll be less prone to injuries because you'll have increased strength.
3.  When you stop waving goodbye at the school bus, your underarm will no longer continue to jiggle back and forth for another 10 seconds.

Okay...great...

Now, you know that phase of working out when you start to add muscle but the fat you have from taking the summer off is still there so now the fat is actually being pushed out because you're building muscle dimension underneath it?

Yeah, that's the part...where things aren't fitting right and starting to spill over like some sick and wrong science experiment?

Yes, okay, now we are on the same page.  This sucks!

This too shall pass.... because it just will.
Because life is always in motion...transforming us.....from season to season...
(and because I know the trainer is right... eventually my muscle will refine, I will lose the fat and voila... I will fit into skinny jeans without losing the ability to breathe.)  Hmmmm.....

It reminds me of labor.  And pregnancy for that matter.

Some women keep their body shape and simply look like they stuffed a basketball into their shirt when the finally turn sideways and you can see that they are carrying a full-grown infant inside their body.  They gain, what... 18 pounds?  Yeah, I gain 18 pounds within the time it takes me to pee on a stick and see that little plus sign and hop the scale.  Seriously... its like my hips heard the news and set up a tail gating party for me... I could have grown a pony keg instead of a baby.

As any mom knows, those 40 weeks DO NOT fly by...there is nothing fast about it...

until contractions start.  Suddenly you are faced with the fact that it is the end of your pregnancy... at those very moments when the contractions become regular... you are done being pregnant.

Only, of course, to enter a phase of complete unknown duration...and can I just add....that time does not fly by either.  Oh sure, chunks of hours will dissipate off the clock and you won't even believe that its time for a shift change (or two, or three) for the hospital nurses and staff but that is only because you're being overtaken with a pain inside your body that causes all other coherent motor functions to cease.

I'll never forget my first labor; how could I?  After all, I have THIRTY HOURS of memories in which to choose from.  Unbeknownst to me I had pneumonia so between the coughing and the hacking I was pretty weary by time we even rolled into the hospital.  I'm not sure whether  peeing amniotic fluid every time I coughed or the puking up orange popsicle was more special (aka disturbing) for my husband to witness.  (We don't talk about that much.... I'm not sure he has time for his own therapy appointments these days.)

I pushed for 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Yes...that's right.  We had to get a Dr's permission to continue without a C-section but by that point, the guy's head was pretty well stuck in there.  (The baby not the doctor.)  No forceps or anything like that needed.... just one ginormous head for which I will never be able to join my kids at SkyHigh trampoline for.  (Love him...just love him.)  His head was over the 100% percentile... dear Jesus I hope he becomes a rocket scientist with that noggin of his.

When you are in the throes of it... you don't see the other side.  Your perspective is limited to what you see around you...the sights, smells and emotions.  That pushing was going to last forever... I mean c'mon...one hour of pushing and I have the "size of a dime" visible to my midwife?  I should have had a friggin buffet plate after all my effort.

But that's just it.  It's only our effort.  That is the best we can do.  That is all we can do.  And this too...shall pass.  This season...shall pass.  These trials...shall pass....  My insanely exaggerated muffin top and bulging thigh area...shall pass (or be surgically removed but you get my point.)

God's perspective is eternal.  He sees you in this specific season, trial, tribulation, pit, weariness, teariness, etc....but he also sees what lies ahead.

This too shall pass.

I love what pastor Jennifer Kraker  said earlier this week when talking about seasons of life, "its like our side view mirrors when we are driving- they read 'Objects in mirror are closer than they appear'."

My child was finally born and in retrospect, it was the blink of an eye that I now have a 9, 6 and 3 year -old set of incredible boys.  Sunnier days are closer than they appear.  Sleepless nights w/ an infant are closer than they appear.  This funk you are in, the implosion of carpools, team practices and PTA obligations you are in...shall too pass... the light at the end of the tunnel is closer than it appears.  You do your part... plod on.... do the best you know how AND ask God to handle the rest.

You do the natural...Jesus takes care of the supernatural.

And yes, its perfectly okay to pray for supernatural skinny thighs.  Amen!