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

Caterpillar Thoughts

Reading the Wisdom of the Caterpillar brought these scriptures to mind:

Ecclesiastes 3

1.To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2. A time to be born , and a time to die ; a time to plant , and a time to pluck up that which is planted ;
3. A time to kill , and a time to heal ; a time to break down , and a time to build up ;
4. A time to weep , and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn , and a time to dance ;
5. A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together ; a time to embrace , and a time to refrain from embracing ;
6. A time to get , and a time to lose ; a time to keep , and a time to cast away ;
7. A time to rend , and a time to sew ; a time to keep silence , and a time to speak ;
8. A time to love , and a time to hate ; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Philipians 3

11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.



Proverbs 3

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

(Funny, all three references are chapter 3. Biblically the number three has do do with completion .)

The Wisdom of the Caterpillar

We do not change by trying to be what we are not, but by being fully what we are. This is the secret. We do not change by looking at the future, but by living the present. When I am fully and generously all that I can and want to be in the present moment, I begin to feel inwardly ready to pass on the to the next moment; when I am all I can be now, I spontaneously and obviously begin to be what I am to be next. The fullness of the present leads up by itself in to the newness of the future. Today flowers into tomorrow when it is fully today, not when it pretends to already tomorrow in impatient anticipation and undue haste. Thus change takes place precisely by not worrying about it, by not trying to forcibly to bring it about, by not imposing it, by not seeking it. Let me be fully what I am today, and I shall wake up in a new world tomorrow.

An example: We know that a caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, and a chrysalis into a butterfly, which is a nature lesson of wonderful change. Now, the caterpillar does not turn into a butterfly by trying to be a butterfly, by planning, scheming, endeavoring, or in any way contriving to be changed into a butterfly with colored wings and flying antennae. If it were to do that (as man would surely do if he were in its place) it would only ruin its chances and spoil its future. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly by being a good, honest, healthy, reliable caterpillar; that is, by being fully and genuinely what it is now, not by trying to be what it is not. The better that caterpillar, the better the butterfly. The stronger the present, the brighter the future. The way for me to learn to fly one day is to walk firmly with my feet on the ground today. Nothing is achieved by dreaming and longing and craving and crying. Only by being fully what am I am today can I get ready to be fully tomorrow what I can be tomorrow. My present stage fully lived is the best preparation for the next one. That is the wisdom of the caterpillar, and why it moves around contentedly at its leisurely pace. It trusts nature and it befriends time. It enjoys life crawling among the leaves and branches as one day it will enjoy life flying from flower to flower in the open sky. It is natures’ kingdom.

— Carlos G Valles

Fr Carlos is a Jesuit priest who has worked in India for nearly forty years.]

Perfect Love

”Verily God is of infinite greatness more than we can think; ... unknowable by created things; and can never be comprehended by us as He is in Himself. But even here and now, whenever the heart begins to burn with a desire for God, she is made able to receive the uncreated light and, inspired and fulfilled by the gifts of the Holy Ghost, she tastes the joys of heaven. She transcends all visible things and is raised to the sweetness of eternal life....

Herein truly is perfect love; when all the intent of the mind, all the secret working of the heart, is lifted up into the love of God.”’

Richard Rolle

From Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer
http://www.geocities.com/johncw7000/tozerknowledgeoftheholy.html

Spiritual Giftings

A couple of months ago the thought came to me through the Holy Spirit that possibly it is not good for me to try and pin down my spiritual giftings. Maybe my idea of what God has specifically put me on this earth to do could keep me from doing other things he wants me to do that are outside of the specified giftings. I have heard many within the church say, "I cannot do this or that. It is not part of my calling and giftings." There have been occasions that I have questioned a direction the Lord seemed to be leading me because it did not line up with my ideas.

If I do as Jesus instructed in Matthew 22:37, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,'' and also whatever my hands find to do, do it with all my might (Ec 9:10) then there is no fear of missing my calling or my purpose.

When the Holy Spirit speaks a direction to me, there defintiely are things that I am more excited about doing than others or places I had rather go than others.

In absolute obedience I discover my giftings and callings.

" But once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God asks of you will always be there to prod you on to do His will. You will no longer be able to work for Him on the basis of common sense." from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, March 4

Links to Oswald Chambers Devotionals

http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php (updated version)
http://www.myutmost.org/ (original version)

Ponderings on Holiness

• My holiness is a "walking out"- a process
• The completeness and wholeness is available without limit for me to walk in by God's grace- how much holiness will I choose?
• Do I have a limit to the degree to which I will follow Jesus?
• Is there a limit to my commitment?
• Will I do this, but not that?
• Do I put limits on the work I will allow God to do in my life?

To my sadness, my answer to many of these questions in all honesty is "yes." I limit what God can do in my life. I limit the closeness in our relationship.

I will always be incomplete-a work in progress. That is a fact for all of us as Believers. My goal is to move closer to Him daily. Looking more and more like Him with each step.

So I will accept the setbacks. Accept my human limitations. Hear from God. Act quickly to follow Him. Listen closely to the gift of the Holy Spirit.