As spring awakens our senses, I begin to ponder the seasons. Autumn has always been my favorite season. Even as a young child I loved everything about the autumn season. The sight of the green leaves losing their color and turning so many different shades of yellow, red and brown. The final harvest of garden veggies and the smell of dirt as the garden was picked for the last time that season.
I remember trips to my great aunt's farm in southern Indiana. Sometimes we would come home with some apples, but mostly bushels of potatoes from one of the neighbors farms. The potatoes would be covered in newspaper and stored in our laundry room just off the garage. Oh how I disliked being the one who had to go and bring the potatoes to Mom! What if a spider was in there? (I don't ever recall a spider, but just the thought even now gives me the "willlies"!)
This same great aunt would make home made applesauce with red hot candies cooked into it. Ahh! The sweet memories, how they linger.
I love how autumn days could be warm or cool. It was the best time for our final grilling of the year. As the days grew colder and rainy, I knew I would soon be ready to be inside more often than out. Ready to settle in warm and cozy for the winter ahead.
Now, at the age of forty-eight, autumn is still my favorite season, but spring is becoming a favorite also. I know spring is around the corner, even though we have had cold weather and a dusting of snow. The birds are chirping by five-thirty in the morning, still hidden by the night sky. They are signing their morning greeting one to another and rest of the world as a new day begins. Plants that are dormant awaken. Buds on trees , bulging with new life, like a unborn babe waiting to announce to the world, "I'm here! Just wait, you will see me soon!"
Spring holds the promise that all things are new, fresh, and alive. It starts to wrap the ground in colors of green waiting for the touch of flowers and plants to decorate it, like the final touches on a well iced cake.
Yet, life is like the seasons. Ever changing, moving from one stage to another in the blink of an eye. You may or may not be enjoying the season of life you are in at the moment. It won't last forever, it is only a season. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Solomon tells of twenty-eight things there are a season to. For every "negative" there is a "positive"; for every "positive" there is a "negative".
As I look at my children each are in a season of their own. Their lives are always changing. Sometimes I feel like a weather man trying to keep current on the weather during the seasons that fall across the globe. Except I am watching all four seasons at one time in my home.
When the family was young, their problems were small, although the "terrible twos" seem to last for an eternity. Each season would come and go, one blending into another, as night quitely giving away to the dayliglht. As a young mother, I would think as the children grew older it had to be easier. Boy was I wrong!
The season of diapers became the season of potty training, to the season of "I can do it myself"! Learning the alphabet paved a way to learning sounds of each letter, to blending letters. The blending soon became reading words and words soon fit together as sentences. Yes! I was on a mountain top! Wait---diagraming?
What season of life are you in? Maybe you are like me and are in the season of raising young children, maybe teens, or have adult children living at home. Maybe you are expecting your first blessing or have an empty nest. Whatever season, embrace it. Seasons do not last forever. One will slip into another with new things to be discovered.
Remember, while seasons change, there is One who never changes. Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." Now that's a promise for all seasons!
I remember trips to my great aunt's farm in southern Indiana. Sometimes we would come home with some apples, but mostly bushels of potatoes from one of the neighbors farms. The potatoes would be covered in newspaper and stored in our laundry room just off the garage. Oh how I disliked being the one who had to go and bring the potatoes to Mom! What if a spider was in there? (I don't ever recall a spider, but just the thought even now gives me the "willlies"!)
This same great aunt would make home made applesauce with red hot candies cooked into it. Ahh! The sweet memories, how they linger.
I love how autumn days could be warm or cool. It was the best time for our final grilling of the year. As the days grew colder and rainy, I knew I would soon be ready to be inside more often than out. Ready to settle in warm and cozy for the winter ahead.
Now, at the age of forty-eight, autumn is still my favorite season, but spring is becoming a favorite also. I know spring is around the corner, even though we have had cold weather and a dusting of snow. The birds are chirping by five-thirty in the morning, still hidden by the night sky. They are signing their morning greeting one to another and rest of the world as a new day begins. Plants that are dormant awaken. Buds on trees , bulging with new life, like a unborn babe waiting to announce to the world, "I'm here! Just wait, you will see me soon!"
Spring holds the promise that all things are new, fresh, and alive. It starts to wrap the ground in colors of green waiting for the touch of flowers and plants to decorate it, like the final touches on a well iced cake.
Yet, life is like the seasons. Ever changing, moving from one stage to another in the blink of an eye. You may or may not be enjoying the season of life you are in at the moment. It won't last forever, it is only a season. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Solomon tells of twenty-eight things there are a season to. For every "negative" there is a "positive"; for every "positive" there is a "negative".
As I look at my children each are in a season of their own. Their lives are always changing. Sometimes I feel like a weather man trying to keep current on the weather during the seasons that fall across the globe. Except I am watching all four seasons at one time in my home.
When the family was young, their problems were small, although the "terrible twos" seem to last for an eternity. Each season would come and go, one blending into another, as night quitely giving away to the dayliglht. As a young mother, I would think as the children grew older it had to be easier. Boy was I wrong!
The season of diapers became the season of potty training, to the season of "I can do it myself"! Learning the alphabet paved a way to learning sounds of each letter, to blending letters. The blending soon became reading words and words soon fit together as sentences. Yes! I was on a mountain top! Wait---diagraming?
What season of life are you in? Maybe you are like me and are in the season of raising young children, maybe teens, or have adult children living at home. Maybe you are expecting your first blessing or have an empty nest. Whatever season, embrace it. Seasons do not last forever. One will slip into another with new things to be discovered.
Remember, while seasons change, there is One who never changes. Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." Now that's a promise for all seasons!
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