How to Celebrate...March
How to Celebrate …
March
“Poor March!
It is the HOMELIEST month of the year.
Most of it is MUD!
Every Imaginable Form of MUD!
And, what isn’t MUD in March is ugly late-season SNOW falling onto the ground
in filthy muddy heaps that look like PILES of DIRTY LAUNDRY.”
― Vivian Swift
Meh …
Blah …
Windy and gloomy …
Long …
Gray … cloudy … non-descript …
No matter what words you might choose to describe the month of March … it’s inevitable that March is one of those months where you have to diligently search for something worth celebrating … something worth smiling about … something worth singing about.
“The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.”
Honestly, I think what I love most about the month of March is this very thing … I must be intentional to choose joy and then to hold onto joy … every day for the 31 days that March has given to me.
March challenges me to a tug-of-war with joy … and I am determined to win!
“In March winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.”
― Jean Hersey
I choose to look at March as a bridge that I am crossing.
March is a bridge from winter to spring … from cold to warmer … from dark to sunny.
I must cross the marching bridge to get to the place where I long to be … and so I must make it through the month of March.
Even as I type those words I realize how self-defeating those words must sound … “I must make it through the month of March.”
What?! What am I talking about?!
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
Every day of every month of every year is a day of unmatched grandeur … whether it is March … or June … or October … or December.
There is nothing “meh” about March!
“Today is the day when bold kites fly,
When cumulus clouds roar across the sky.
When robins return, when children cheer,
When light rain beckons spring to appear.”
― Robert McCracken, Spring
March can be viewed as the month of grand expectation ~ I am expecting spring and that alone is worth celebrating!
I am anticipating the song of the robin outside my window … the smell of the crocuses along my sidewalk … and the lengthening of days.
I can live with joy in the gloom of March because of all that lies ahead of me!
I can celebrate the marching onward of the month of March as I turn my face toward the warmth of tomorrow and all that it holds.
The true ultimatum of March, however, is not to look forward but to splash in the mud puddles that March delivers.
Anyone can look ahead with joy … but I must, I simply must … delight in the murky wonder of a dark day in the middle of March.
When the earth is gray around me … there is a garden of God inside of me that is forever blooming.
When the calendar wails in the dismal timbre of a day hidden under the heading of “March” … there is a joy in my soul that cannot be quenched.
March is the month that calls all of us to walk by faith and not by sight.
I can do it … can you?!
So what can we do on a practical level to splash in the mud of March and come out with a song?
What can we do?!
I’d love to share with you three disciplines that have kept my soul from throwing a pity party in March.
Let’s call these three challenges … Your MARCHing orders!
The first discipline that I like to practice in the month of March is to ponder that which has been hibernating in the recesses of my heart and to call those sleeping friends back to life.
March is the month when drowsy dreams become the sweet blooms of springtime.
March is an internal alarm clock that awakens the lazy ligaments of my intentions.
What is it that you have always hoped to accomplish but have never had the resolve to make happen?
Write a blog?
Sing up for a flower- arranging class? Or a pottery class? Or a cooking class?
Track down a high school friend?
Throw out clothes that are out of date and no longer fit?
Paint your bedroom?
Take a road trip with a friend?
Teach Sunday School?
Walk a mile every day? Or two miles?
Mend a broken relationship?
March is the month to call dead things back to life again!
I can’t speak to the dead places in your heart … only you can do that!
Speak life! Speak hope! Get around to it today!
It’s March!
The second practice that the month of March instigates in my soul is to encourage someone whose life seems to be a perpetual March … gray and gloomy and even muddy with no expiration date in sight.
Is there a mom of a special needs child who might need a break? Could you take her out to lunch and pay for the babysitter?
Is there a widow who remains hidden in the caverns of grief? Perhaps you could take her a bouquet of flowers and sit with her for an afternoon?
Is there a single mom who could use a new outfit? Or her house cleaned? Or a friend?
Is there a teacher who is at the end of her rope due to the extreme demands of teaching virtually? Could you take her a meal? Treat her to a pedicure?
Do you know someone with a long-term illness? Could you send this person a card every day during the month of March?!
What joy! What purpose! What an assignment from on high!!
Stop right now and pray … ask the Holy Spirit to show you who is in need of the encouragement that only you can offer during this month of March 2021.
Your month of March will only be as valuable and as wonderful as you choose to make it be.
March will always be windy and dark if you refuse to bring springtime to someone else’s life.
March is the month to gift others with the lavish joy of spring!
Give it! Bring it! Get around to it today!
It’s March!
The third practice that gives meaning and purpose to the month of March is the practice of prayer.
Perpetual … focused … intentional prayer.
31 Days of Prayer.
On March first every year, I make a list of 3 specific prayer requests that have been dogging my life for months.
You know those requests … those needs that have been haunting you for years or even decades.
And in March, I tackle those requests.
I pray fervently every day for all three specific needs.
I pray on my knees.
I pray in my bed.
I pray doing the dishes.
I pray folding the laundry.
I pray with my hands in the air.
I pray while I am driving.
I pray with tears running down my cheeks.
I pray while I am walking.
I turn off the TV and I pray.
I walk away from my computer and I pray.
I turn off my phone and I pray.
I pray for all three requests … every single day of the 31 days that March holds.
Prayer transforms the month of March for me … it is no longer gloomy, dark and muddy … but it is powerful, productive and miraculous!
Miraculous March!
The month of March doesn’t deliver joy to me … I deliver joy to the month of March!
Awaken your dreams … bring sunshine to someone else … March and pray.
Suddenly, March has become the very best month of the entire year!
“Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn.”
As my dreams begin their morning stretch … and I purposefully encourage others … and I change the world with my prayers … March has become the most beautiful, the loveliest and the most purposeful month of the year.
March is more than a bridge … it is a lifestyle that sings above the storm.
March is not to be endured … but it is to be embraced with every fiber of my being.
March has lost its gloom … and is sparkling with the delight of joy!
“Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”
― William Shakespeare (The Winter’s Tale)