When Guests Linger
On releasing what no longer needs to stay.
Some guests don't come to the door on their own.
They arrive through circumstance — tucked into a difficult season, a loss, or an unmet hope.
Grief brings sorrow with her. Delay brings disappointment. Uncertainty brings worry.
And before we know it, these guests begin to settle in.
At first, we assume they're only passing through. But time moves on, and they remain — quiet, familiar, woven into our routines.
What began as a feeling becomes a resident, shaping the atmosphere of the house.
A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
— Ecclesiastes 3:6 (KJV)
Not all who find residence in the heart are meant to stay.
To keep the heart is to notice who arrived with a season that has now passed — and to release what no longer needs to remain.