Thursday, July 21, 2011

Seasons

Don’t you just love the change of seasons? Especially from winter to spring or spring to summer.




Summer to fall is always nice here in Georgia. The leaves fall from the trees and the wind blows all day long. Such a refreshing break from 98+ degrees!




Of course, once fall begins so does Daylight Savings Time and then the days are shorter and everyone gets depressed and moody. Then winter comes! It’s the time where we huddle up inside and drink lots of coffee or some other hot beverage and gain some weight…




There are also changes in other types of seasons in our lives. Like developing new friendships or rekindling old ones. Sometimes there’s a fizzling of friendships that once seemed to bloom so beautifully. No real cause for the fizzling except just people going in different directions. Some seasons involve job changes, moving to a new home, changing churches. Some changes are brought about by loss.

Regardless of the season you may be in at this time in your life, I say embrace it. For every change or loss, there is something new around the corner. A change or a loss may be sad or even devastating but it can only get you down – and I mean all the way down – if you let it.

The biggest change to me at this time is that for the first time in fourteen years I am not shopping for new school books. Usually, my summers are spent looking through catalogs and going to conventions, ordering the books and digging into them to plan out the year ahead. In a couple of weeks, I will be finished homeschooling and so I find myself feeling many strange feelings about this new season. I am thrilled to have homeschooled. And I am thrilled to have made it through without quitting. I am also excited to see where the Lord leads me after this and what He does with my children long term as a result of the homeschooling.

My husband and I are also taking the summer to visit around churches in our community other than our own. This has been a change that I didn’t really welcome at first but have now embraced and am enjoying meeting new folks and learning new things. We’ll see where this season takes us.

I don’t really like change – except change for the better. But I have had to endure much of it in my life. One thing that is for sure, God is always, always walking with me through whatever change of season it is. And He always knows what’s best for me and He knows the outcome.

All photos property of Kayla Johnson Photography