I want to share something I found on a blog today.
The credit goes to a man by the name of Paul David Tripp.
Investigating who he is I think he is a pastor out of Pennsylvania and this quote comes out of a book of his.
I am not sure if it is it is proper etiquette to use a quote from someone else so long as I give him credit it might be alright.
Excerpt from “Lost in the middle” by Paul David Tripp:


You’re now in the autumn of your life, and you are quite aware the leaves are off the trees. You’re standing in a pile of the leaves of  your marriage, your parenting, your extended family, your friendships, your work, and your ministry. These leaves of the past have grown wrinkled and dry, and you know you cannot put them back on the tree. It’s tempting to sit down in the pile and examine leaf after leaf and wish you were holding a new bud from a new sapling, but you aren’t. The harvest has come in and it is what it is. Yet in all of this, there is hope because your Lord is the Lord of new seasons. With the new season comes the freedom to plant new and better seeds. With the new season comes the expectation of a new harvest of new fruit.
Stand up and walk away from your pile of  yesterday’s leaves. Take the seeds of a new way into  your hands, press them into the soil of your life and thank God that you will live to see a better harvest.
Isn’t this just awesome?
I feel like I am in the autumn part of life, turning 56 just a few days ago. Feeling a tad out of shape and old. Not so old that I can’t learn to forgive if it is needed or redeem a wrong or learn a lesson or two. Life is just as this writing says, a series of leaves that fall, and you rake them up and wait for another ‘tumbling’ of sorts.
Seasons change us.
They help us grow and restore ourselves.
They help us renew old thoughts and purge out the negative.
They help us strengthen our weak places and reinforce the strong ones.
Winter will leave us soon and this season of chill will be replaced with a bit of warmth.
Then one day we will wake up and spring will be here and new birth awaits the morning.
Birds will sing and make nests, and bulbs full of life will bulge from frozen ground.
I think I am ready for spring.
For the newness of life.
For relationships to grow deeper and more open.
For quietness in my soul to settle into the routine again.
I want to live to see a better harvest… of family and friendships and growth in God.
As we hold the new seeds of the seasons may we have a thankful heart for whatever is ahead of us.
(picture taken by Shelly Collis ~ Newberg, Oregon)