From the Archives:
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8)
There is something bittersweet about endings.
They carry a weight that beginnings never do.
The beginning of motherhood is filled with first cries, first steps, first days of school, and the sweet chaos of growing a family.
But the end—those final years as your children begin to stretch their wings—carries a deeper gravity.
You feel the hours slipping through your hands like sand, and yet, if you have labored faithfully to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, the end shines with a beauty no beginning can match.
It is proof of years of love, prayer, correction, and sacrifice woven together.
It is the fruit of patient endurance, and the fruit is always sweeter at the end of harvest than in the sowing of seed.
The end of a season of ministry feels much the same.
At the beginning there is energy, vision, excitement. But at the end there are faces, names, stories—souls you’ve wept over, people you’ve served, burdens you’ve carried.
It is not as flashy as the start, but the journey you’ve had is weightier, richer, fuller.
Endings remind us that ministry is not measured in how well we start but how faithfully we finish.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
Even the end of a life is truly better than the beginning.
Birth is beautiful—it brings hope, promise, a future unknown.
But for the child of God, death is not defeat.
It is the culmination of faith, the final step before entering into the presence of Christ.
The end of a faithful life testifies louder than its beginning.
We rejoice at the birth of a child, but we stand in reverence at the bedside of a saint, whispering through tears:
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15)
Why is the end better than the beginning?
Because the beginning is unproven, uncertain, fragile.
The end tells the whole story.
It is the evidence of what was built, what was endured, what was finished.
In motherhood, the end is better because you can see the work of God in the lives of your children.
In ministry, the end is better because you can trace His hand through the seasons of labor and fruit.
In death, the end is better because it ushers the believer into eternity, where faith becomes sight and hope becomes reality.
Solomon continues in Ecclesiastes:
“In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14)
Both prosperity and adversity, beginnings and endings, joy and sorrow—they are all appointed by the Lord.
He weaves them together so that our lives are not left to chance but shaped for His glory.
Christian, we must remember beginnings are beautiful, but endings are better.
Our hope is not in how strong we started but in how faithful we finish.
The prayer of every mother, every servant of Christ, every believer nearing the end of their journey should be that of Paul:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)
If you are in the ‘end’ of a beloved season right now I challenge you to see the beauty of the ending, and give God the glory for the great things He hath done!
And I pray at the very end of our lives, we may hear those most treasured words from our Savior’s lips:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant… enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:21)
Biblical Womanhood
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