Seasons of Winter

Fall is my most favorite time of year. I love everything about it. The other morning I was driving and was captured by all the gorgeous trees & leaves. In the middle of all these gorgeous colored trees I noticed one tree that was already looking dead, barren, looked like winter had already set in for that tree. My first thought was 'oh how sad, winter will be here before we know it.'

 In just moments God opened my eyes. This one tree that looked dead, was actually not dead at all. It was just going through a 'season', it had to go through this process to strengthen itself, but as the season passed it would grow stronger & would soon produce more fruit that the year before, it would be stronger, taller, more beautiful than before.

This struck a chord within me. See, the day I drove past this tree, I too was feeling like I  too had entered my "winter" season. Life felt very cold, lonely & even dark. God showed me that I was that tree, I am going through winter, and sometimes like that tree it feels like all the trees around me are beautiful & producing fruits. God has a beautiful, perfect process and if I can survive winter, I will produce a greater harvest. In order to produce this harvest I have to prepare myself just as the tree.

In my little epiphany God gave me, I realized I knew nothing about trees changing & I didn't fully understand what God was saying to me until I got home & hit up Google! Wow was God speaking to me!

 I, like the tree must protect myself from the freeze & harsh winter influences. The leaves of the tree must toughen up or the tree must dispose of the leaves to stay healthy. If the leaves of the tree are not tough & the tree does not drop the leaves, the leaves will kill the tree.When you are in a winter season of life, there are times that you just have to toughen up & hang on to your roots! Then there can people or influences that if you don't dispose of they will kill you. We all have those individuals in our lives who drain us, who you leave feeling worse than you came. I learned many years ago that I have to be careful who I surround myself with because it is very easy for people to drain me. That is not saying that I don't love people, I do, I just have to keep balance. Sometimes you have to make life changes & sometimes that means cutting off certain friendships. If you protect yourself & place strong individuals around you, you will flourish!

 I am comforted that this is just a season, and that this winter means an even greater harvest is coming!