Changing Seasons: What Season Are You In?

I was just thinking the other day about the seasons and how our lives certainly seem to go through them.  And with June 21st having finally brought summer around, I thought this the perfect opportunity to share.  I’ll start with a brief description of each season and what that means for you:

1. Spring: a time in life where doors start opening up for you, new opportunities are birthed, and sunshine is certainly smiling down on you.  Rain may come your way, but it only helps your opportunities grow more plentiful and fruitful.
2. Summer: the season in which you start to get into the swing of things, where the sunshine is perpetually available, your life is bringing forth new harvest, and life’s a beach and a perfectly peachy August.
3. Autumn: a season in which change is evident once again.  Old opportunities might die, but they are beautiful changes that make way for new, healthier opportunities.
4. Winter:  The sun is no longer so bright and warm.  It’s cold and gray.  Everything has died.  There is no birth or rebirth.  You might get the beauty of snow every once in a while, but until the spring you may hide inside yourself just to avoid the bitter cold of the outside world.

I often think about the different seasons of my life between childhood, adolescence, the college years, adulthood, and life at different jobs I’ve had.  Life at my last job was more of an autumn season–the old dying off to make way for new opportunities as I consciously made the decision to follow God’s will for my life.  It was a stepping stone that God provided for me to make way for where I am now.

The job before that was a winter job.  A cold, dark, place of misery–a place that came with a lot of pain, heartache, and betrayal.

But how glad I am that I made it through winter.  How thankful I am that I made it to my spring season, for without the heartache back then, I wouldn’t have made it to the opportunity I have now.  Sometimes I still hear about the goings on from that place, and every time I do…I remind myself how thankful I am that I am home with my kids, that I’m here on my front porch typing on my own computer, taking the pictures I want to take, creating the products and images that I want to design, and writing the way I want to write.  Because this job is perfectly me.  I was made for writing, and writing was made for me.

Maybe your season is still winter.  Maybe you’re entering a new season of your marriage, whether a new spring or an autumn season (for more on seasons of marriage, check out Gary Chapman’s 4 Seasons of Marriage).  But whatever season you’re in, thank God for it.  Thank God for the beauty of new opportunities, the August peaches, the changing leaves, and yes–even the gray bitterness of winter.  Because beyond Winter, there is a new Spring waiting for you.

Linking up at: