Library
A Time and a Season
April 1980


“A Time and a Season,” Ensign, Apr. 1980, 74

A Time and a Season

We had our first baby less than a year after we were married. But although we had happily looked forward to the event, I was shocked to discover that I wasn’t prepared for the total commitment motherhood demands.

It was hard to give up my freedom. I longed to continue going to school with my husband, to read, to paint, to write. But how could I do all of those things when my baby demanded so much of my time?

Since then, I’ve learned something: there is a season for everything. The night colic and the peanut-butter-in-the-hair stage will eventually pass. But so will the joys of my baby’s first smile, his first steps, his first little prayer.

I’ve come to understand that each stage in my life can be a joy if I am determined not to blind myself by impatience, selfishness, and dissatisfaction. Geri Brinley, Ogden, Utah