YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW WHEN TO HOLD 'EM AND KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM

One of my Daddy's favorite songs was "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers.  It's one of those songs that takes more right back to my childhood.  Two other songs that can do this is "The Coward Of  The County" also  by Kenny Rogers and "The Ballad of Thunder Road" by Robert Micthums,  I got sidetrack while writing this because I kept finding songs on YOU TUBE that my Daddy like so I wound on a train going down Memory Lane.
     Anyway,  there's a line in "The Gambler" that says "You have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em."  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV) tells us there is a time for everything.

 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

There is also a song by the Bryds called  "Turn, Turn Turn"  based on these verse.  God knew there would be different seasons in our life:  Some seasons break your heart and make you want to tear your clothes and wallow in the ashes and then there are seasons that are so beautiful that you catch a glimpse of heaven.  However; most of us, most of the time, are in seasons that fall somewhere in between..  My seasons are  shifting.   This summer I became a mother of an adult who will graduate in nine short months and a daughter  who just dipped her toe into to that big pool called high school and is counting down the days (I think its 22 ) until she can get her driver's permit.  It seams like just yesterday she was in her Johnny Jumper and he was  running around acting like Spider-man, (well, somethings  NEVER  change).  I can remember there were days when I thought I'd never make it, and now I find myself wanting those days back.    But life's like that isn't it?  Time passes on whether you want it to or not.  We have to know when to hold 'em - when we need to fight and keep doing what we believe God it telling us to do, but there are also time when we need to fold 'em - when God is telling us that is time to let something go.  I think it's harder to fold 'em because we HATE  not be in control.  Life is a gamble; the ONLY thing I can be sure of is that I am property off the King and will I'll spend an eternity with Him in paradise.  I hope that on November 7th, 2018 Bryan and I will celebrate our 20th  wedding anniversary, but it's not promised.  I hope and  pray that when Dalton and Bobbye Sue get out on their own, that they will live a life pleasing to God.  But I can't make that decision for them.  But my prayer is when I get to Heaven I'll be able tell God That I held 'em when He told me to hold 'em, and I folded 'em when He told  me to fold 'em, and He'll say; "Well done, good and faithful servant."