To Everything There is a Season

It is officially fall.  There is no getting around it.  I don't mind fall, it's okay in it's own way...but I know that fall means winter, and I don't like winter.  The cold, deadness of snow-covered branches are hardly conducive to warm, fuzzy feelings.

As I was thinking about the seasons, and the ones I like best (Spring and Summer), I was thinking about a verse from Ecclesiastes 3.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted...a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Right now is our harvest time...the farmers are plucking up what was planted.  Right now, it is fall.  But right now, many of you are experiencing conflicting seasons in your hearts.  Some of you are dancing, and some of you are weeping, some of you are laughing and some of you are mourning.

Those weeping and mourning times are so miserable, and those laughing and dancing times are so joyful.  But it's what you do with those seasons that count.  I need my God in the weeping and mourning times so very much.  For He is my rock and salvation (Psalm 62:2).  But I also need him in my laughing and dancing times, for he will make my joy complete. 

 He will refine you in the those down times, and fashion you more like himself.  (James 1:2-4)  But only if you allow Him.  Do not allow resentment and bitterness a foothold. I speak to myself just as much as anyone. There are trials in my life that I hold onto with clenched fists..and I am praying for the strength to release them. Or more, perhaps, the humility to release them.

Right now, it is Spring in my heart, I feel the promise of something new.  And who knows?  It is Nebraska..the season could change, and I may soon be living in winter...but what I do with it, and what I allow God to do with it, will produce an outcome either to glorify Him and allow contentment for me, or produce a lifetime of misery.

At Home:

We just got a couple of little kittens from dear friends of ours.  They are to be OUTSIDE, and perhaps help keep the mouse population down.  Roxie (our black lab) has no clue what to do with them.  So she exhibits her friendly side and licks them all over.  Now we have Cookie and Cream (this is what I named them)  with spiky hair thanks to the dog.  Judah's not sure what he thinks of them either.

This is Cookie in this picture.  We don't have a good picture of Cream, guess I'll have to work on that.  As you can see, Judah is a bit apprehensive.

And here's my sweet baby boy.