Mohney: For everything there is a season

Each year, I choose a book of the Bible to study during October, my birthday month. I also choose one activity or habit to give up and one to take on. This year I chose the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes because it speaks of seasons of life. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything there is a season.”

I have enjoyed remembering my seasons of childhood, youth, young adulthood, middle-age and now the final one. There is no indication of how long this season will last, but I’ve decided what I will take on. I will write one letter a month to someone who has influenced my life for good. Actually, I have already written my first one. I enjoyed it so much I’m sure I will write more than one a month.

The activities I will give up include writing assignments – my weekly newspaper column and my occasional book or booklets for Abingdon Press in Nashville. For example, my Advent Devotional booklet has just been released. Already I’ve received calls from friends in several states, saying their churches are distributing the booklets to their church members for Advent.

Perhaps I will most miss writing my weekly column. I have chosen my 94th birthday for my final one. That will be two weeks from today. In the interim I will share the amazing story of how I happened to write the first column on Feb. 20, 1977. Also, I’ll include some of the interesting and funny incidents that have happened during those 38 years.

More than anything else, I will miss you, the readers. Even now, each week I receive emails, telephone calls or handwritten notes about a column they particularly liked. Yet I feel that God is calling me in a different direction.

As we change seasons, let’s remember that God always calls us forward. I believe he never wants us to get stuck in the past or to live in fear about the future. There is a simple affirmation that has helped me live joyfully. Each morning I say and mean the 24th verse of the 118th Psalm: “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Contact Nell Mohney at nellwmohney@comcast.net.