A guest blog.

First, I want to thank my beautiful wife Tanya for the invitation to be a guest blogger this month.  I am dedicating this blog to her as she loves the fall season, (I wish I could share her enthusiasm) lol.

I have come to realize in my life that I have a love-hate relationship with fall.  What I love about fall is the colors, the pumpkin cakes, muffins, pumpkin spice and cinnamon candles and just the coziness fall brings at night with the Fam.  What I dislike about fall is that it’s a reminder that winter is quickly approaching as I am NOT a winter guy.  But as much I do not like fall and winter, I know that they are necessary for the two seasons I do love, spring and summer to be vibrant.  Fall is a purging, as the term “fall” is from an English phrase “fall of leaf”. Leaves falling from the trees is a process.  Some may ask, why do leaves fall from trees?  If you remember science class, you will remember that less sunlight in winter makes photosynthesis less productive.  Shedding the leaves allows the tree to conserve water for when the ground freezes.  Finally, bare branches handle ice and snow better.  This is so amazing to me, the design of a tree that God created.  If God cared enough about a tree to place all of these failsafes, how much more does He care about you? 

Many of us view the season of fall as a dying time. The trees lose leaves, the grass turns brown and the harvest fields are bare.  We fall back on our clocks, the days become shorter and the nights become colder.  But this is all part of the process, much like our lives.  The Bible mentions seasons numerous times. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says “To everything there is a season, a time to EVERY purpose under heaven”.  God has appointed times for different experiences in your life.  Just as the earthly seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter have their purpose for the earth, so do the seasons in our lives. They have a purpose for God’s plan in your life.  Remember, “every purpose under the heaven”.

You may feel like you are in the fall season of your life. Remember, this is just a season,  realize that God is using this season to purge you of the things that are holding you back from the planting, the growing and the harvest.  God desires your life to be productive in all seasons and to use these seasons to be the person He desires you to be. 

We have all heard the saying, “what does not kill you makes you stronger”, God has you, and He will never allow you to go through more than you can handle.  Know that no matter what season you are in, God is always there with you. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  

I would encourage you to look at the fall season of your life, not as a dying time but as a preparation time for what is to come. God is preparing you for a new season, a season of hope, a season of growth and a season of harvest. Just as fall prepares the tree for the winter, so is your season of fall strengthening you for Gods plan in your life.  

I will close with something I thought I’d never say…… “Embrace the fall season” and you will see the other seasons in your life flourish. 

God bless!!

Mark