New Season, Renewed Grace

     Have you ever been in seasons that seem to go out with a bang? Or maybe they begin that way. Maybe the entire season is just one big explosion of chaos. That is how I feel life has gone around here the last year or so. 

    If you have known me any length of time, then you know that I started a blog years ago. You also know that it's been years since I've written anything and posted about it. So much life has happened as I'm sure you can say the same. Seasons have come and gone. Some I'm glad are behind us, while others I miss greatly. All the same, God continues to move and shake things up. 

    In the spirit of the new season I find myself in, I have decided to start up another blog. I have also decided to dust off that half of a book I have written and finish it. Don't ask when that will be, I have absolutely no idea, but you will be some of the first to know when it happens. But until then, I will be blogging a little more in the meantime.

    The name of this blog was birthed out of a whirlwind of events last year. Life was going well. I was even training for my first marathon when we found out I was expecting just before my 40th birthday. That was the first inkling that life as we knew it was about to be turned upside down. We unfortunately never got to meet that child, and I had a medically abnormal loss that resulted in multiple procedures. God was present and faithful in the midst of that, and though we were going through what I felt was enough for one year, we began to feel the Lord stirring up a change in season. By the end of 2023, we were packing up our family of 8 to head west to Texas to help with a church plant. As if that wasn't enough transition, a month after arriving in our new home, we discovered a very unexpected surprise - I was pregnant again and absolutely terrified. I won't get too down into my feels in this post, but let's just say I did NOT want a repeat of the year before. Throughout the course of each move, God was revealing who I was (and wasn't) and shaping me more into who He created me to be - a woman and mama who is called to worship in every season. 

    That is what this blog is all about. Navigating the highs and lows of motherhood, leadership, and life while worshiping a God who will never leave you and who gives you what you need to accomplish His purpose as we pursue ours. I don't know what season you are currently in, but I do know that there is greatness and grace in it. Whether you are in the trenches of motherhood, the season of singleness, or life has you feeling lost, you aren't alone and it's not forever. Maybe you're in an absolutely fabulous season and you never want it to end, but you feel your season shifting and you're waiting on the Lord to light your steps. Or perhaps you are grieving a season of the past. Wherever you find yourself, know there is joy and hope in the midst of your journey, and each season has its beauty. Sometimes it just needs to be searched for. (Like, really searched for!) 

    Though we are not experts by any means, our family is no stranger to seasonal change. Nor are we unfamiliar to the challenges of transition or the hardship of life, but what we find most comforting and familiar through it all is the presence of grace. The beautiful, ever-present, always on time, forever enough presence of grace. God is always faithful to equip and commission us with His grace whenever He turns over a new leaf and brings forth a new season in our lives. This season is no different. He has met us with mercy and favor as we step forward on the path laid before us. He has given a renewed grace as He welcomes us into our next season.

    So as I sit here reflecting on all the twists and turns of yesterday, I am excited about the goodness of today and the promise of tomorrow. I am 6 months pregnant with a beautiful, healthy, baby boy at 41 years old. I am raising 6 kids ages 8-18, and married to an amazing man who is an amazing father. He has the privilege of being a pastor, and I have had the honor to have been involved in leading worship teams over the years, though that is not what I'm doing heavily in this season. It's been a great life, and I can't wait to see what God does in the days ahead. Though we thought we were coming up to the homestretch of raising kids and planting churches, here we are back at the starting line. Talk about needing a renewed grace! I am excited and full of hope and wonder as I walk into this next phase of motherhood, leadership, and life. I don't know the curves that are waiting in the road ahead, but I do know one thing - whatever comes I will have the grace and mercy to worship my way through them, and you will, too.

- Lahni