A REASON AND A SEASON

Lately I have been really missing some people that use to be really big in my life and very discouraged with some of the people that are still in my life but today as I was riding home from a meeting things became really clear to me with four little words "a reason, a season". See one of the people that I have been missing in my life use to use this phrase often. She would always say that God puts people in your life for a reason and a season. Now I had come to the rational that not everyone was suppose to be in your life for all of your life a while ago, but I had not really heard it quite so consise and as I was in my car that really was the only thing going in my mind. Let me explain. I was on the phone with my director (business partner of sorts) and we were talking about a lot of different things that I had on my mind and she was just so encouraging. Now she is always encouraging but I must have really needed it tonight because I found myself just grinning like a complete idiot and not really caring and that was when it that saying found me.
Everyone that is in my life right at this moment has a reason and a season. Maybe the ones that are irritating me are there to show me patience or understanding or something that I haven't found yet. And maybe they are only in my life until I learn that and then they will move on. Yet there are those like my director who I feel are the perfect counterpoint for me that I hope are in my life for the long haul because I learn so much from them just from being around them. Allow me to tell a story. Many years ago when I was working in retail I was sent to a new store about 3 weeks after being promoted to management. I had loved my store and my head manager, but the store that I was going to also had a head manager that I had worked for previously and also liked and respected. I had just gotten a little comfortable with my new store and manager when she decided to step down and a whole new manager stepped in. Along with a new head manager we also go a new assistant manager who had been with the company for a few years in management and recently moved to the area. These two hit it off like gang busters. They were going to happy hour together and talking all the time and they were like best friends and even took one of the part-timers under their wing. Well the next thing I knew I was being written up for some foolishness that didn't even seem like I had done, but there it was. Never really being a quiet person I told her that I only felt that I was being written up because she didn't like me and that in all the years that I had worked for the company I had never even been given a warning. After that things got worse. I even went to our district manager and asked to be moved anywhere but there however it was Christmas and that is just not the time to move in retail. So I decided just to do the job and be ready after the holiday to go somewhere else. Yet as the months went on the head manager and I began to respect each other. I began to be given way more responsiblity and even ended up heading up one of the district divisions which was un-heard of for an assistant manager. Matter of fact by the time that I did end up getting transfered she told me that she had requested that I be allowed to stay because I was one of the best managers that she had ever worked with. I was amazed and then I realized that I felt the same about her. I had learned so much from her just by shutting up and doing my job and watching her do hers. Granted in the beginning I was just watching for her to mess up so that I could report her, but I learn a lot. I even use her as an example of what a head manager should be to this day and she is still the best manager I have ever worked under.
All of that is to say that yes it would be great if we got along with everyone in our lives everyday. And it would also be great if we could keep those that have touched us so much in our lives just a little bit long. But they have served their purpose and must move on to others to help and guide them as well and just as the had a reason and a season for our lives we had one for theirs. We might not ever know what that was but I like to think that those that run across my mind every once in a while are also thinking of me. That like myself they are wishing that we had had more time together, but also understand that it was not meant to be. I also like to think that those who find me confonding are also learning from me as I am from them. That when the reason or season is revealed we will look back with fondness and grace and know that we are better for our time together however short or long it was.