🌙 Are You in a Season of Darkness?

Have you ever found yourself in a season of life that left you disoriented and aching—wondering where God is or what He could possibly be doing with your pain?

Maybe you’re carrying the heavy weight of loss. Maybe you’re living with unanswered prayers. Maybe you’re struggling to make sense of chaos swirling around your family. And maybe, in the quiet, you’ve whispered: “God, I just don’t understand.”

If you’ve ever been there—you’re not alone.

I know what it’s like to wish your story had unfolded differently, to envy those who seem to glide through trials while you stumble through a night that feels never-ending. But here’s what I’m learning: these dark nights—the ones we’d never choose for ourselves—can actually be sacred opportunities. They are not random or cruel. They are the very places where God does His deepest work.

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💔 My Personal Journey: When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn

This truth has become very real for me in this summer. My husband recently took a job in another state, which means I’m running our home solo during the week—homeschooling, working, and carrying the daily weight of parenting without my best friend by my side.

Some days it feels like too much.

And then I look around and see friends dealing with heartbreaking diagnoses and unspeakable loss— the kind of plot twists that make my current season look like a day at Disney Land.

Maybe your story carries similar challenges.

But here’s what God is gently teaching me in the midst of the struggle:

🌱 The dark night of the soul is the soil where spiritual fruit grows.

Not despite the pain, but because of it.

We have a tendency to lean into our gifts—our talents and abilities—and they are wonderful. But fruit—the kind produced by the Holy Spirit—is something far deeper and far more durable. And fruit is sown and grown in valleys, not on mountaintops.

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🍇 The Soil Where Fruit Grows

These truths aren’t original to me. They came from a recent sermon at my church by our executive pastor, Eric Eason, called “Birth Pains.” In that message, Pastor Eric explained how the fruit of the Spirit doesn’t just appear in our lives—it is birthed. And just like real birth, the process is often painful.

But that pain has a purpose. It is the soil where something beautiful and eternal is being formed.

• Love is birthed in loss.
• Joy is birthed in mourning.
• Peace is birthed in chaos.
• Patience is birthed in waiting.
• Kindness is birthed in disappointment.
• Goodness is birthed in need and injustice.
• Faithfulness is birthed in betrayal.
• Gentleness is birthed in conflict.
• Self-control is birthed in temptation.

That image has stayed with me: fruit being birthed in the soil of pain. It reframes the dark nights I face and reminds me that the difficulty I want to escape may actually be the very place where God is producing what my family needs most.

Friend, if you are in a season of darkness, please know: your pain isn’t wasted. God is cultivating something eternal in you—something your family desperately needs.

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🎙️ On the Podcast This Week

In this week’s episode of CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD., I share honestly about this season of my life and how God is meeting me in it. I also unpack a vivid Old Testament image: priests’ robes decorated with alternating gold bells (gifts) and pomegranates (fruit). Just as bells and fruit were woven together, so must our gifts and fruit be—because our kids may admire our talents, but they are formed by our fruit.

👉 🎧 Listen to the full episode on Life Audio here ➝

 Or you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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💡 Parenting Takeaway

Try naming the fruit God is growing in your family right now. For example:

• “This waiting is hard, but it’s growing patience in us.”
• “That act of kindness, even in disappointment, shows the Spirit’s work in you.”

When we speak it out, our kids learn to see their struggles through a Kingdom lens.

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✨ Remember:

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🙏 A Prayer for You

Father, thank You that You never waste our pain. Thank You that even in the dark nights, You are growing love, joy, peace, and patience in us—fruit our families need to thrive. Give us eyes to see the purpose in our struggles and faith to trust that You are at work, even when we don’t understand.

Link:
Check out this sermon about how fruit grows:
“Birth Pains” by Eric Eason