Seasons of Life

This excerpt is from Sally Clarkson's Feb 9 Blog. I read her book Educating the Wholehearted Child when it was first published. I still value it even though the pages have been turned so many times they are falling out. She is such an encourager.



Every season of life is necessary and beneficial.





Spring–time for rejoicing and saying, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Learning to celebrate life and all the spring seasons takes a choice of the heart and a submission to the limitations of each season.


Summer is a time for cultivating and gardening of the souls and planting seeds and foundations. Summer is just for a season and once the season is over, there is no more time to cultivate or garden–The window of opportunity to train and instruct and inspire in eternal values and great thoughts suddenly closes–so how important it is to really take advantage of that season and know just what you want to sow and how you want to immulate the reality of God and His character during that planting season.


Fall, is when one season of life is closing (toddlerhood, elementary, preteens, teenage and college) Falls are a time of readjusting expectations, choosing to be flexible with the life God brings and choosing to accept the harvest for what it is, while planning to be faithful to plant well the next summer season. Learning to accept those ideals that were never grasped and planning for how to continue forging a godly heritage in new seasons.


Winter–the season when all appears to be dead and the times are dark and sometimes overwhelming. During this season, the soul is deepened like in no other season–as roots are pushing downward into God’s word and sap is restoring by learning to wait patiently for God’s answers–and straining towards Him. In winter, souls are made and godliness and faith is forged–no one becomes seasoned and mature in faith or compassionate or ministry oriented without winters–they reveal the true character of our souls and stretch our faith.



http://itakejoy.wordpress.com/

http://wholeheart.org/whmain.php