There’s something about Fall…..
….the changing colors, the beauty in scenery, the cooler temperatures, the golden hour, the golden hues, the pumpkins and apples, fall festivities…….there’s just something about Fall.
Fall is also a season of dying. The life around us starts to fade, the leaves change and then lose their color, crumple and die, but I have noticed the beauty in this. This season reminds me of my season of dying. Dying to myself, and getting ready for the rebirth, or Spring, the growing season. It’s a necessary cycle and process of life.
There’s beauty in dying, because of the changes that come with it. The “better” that happens next. I see this season as my time to die to myself. Dying to ourselves is important, dying to our selfish ways and our soulish ways. It can be a difficult time as we see where we are self motivated, but the end result is a better, more meaningful life.
I have seasons of dying to myself more and more. The first season began with marriage, and the next season began with having kids. You learn to die to yourself a little more through these seasons. It just can’t be all about you if you truly want to be a good wife and parent.
I am now in a season of dying to my discontented self and the thinking I deserve all my wants. Wants and needs are very different, and in truth, my wants are not always necessary. In reality we don’t deserve anything. Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for us, and we didn’t deserve it. Our sinful nature definitely didn’t deserve an eternity of life.
I am learning to be more content with the much I do have, and to realize that I have more than most people. It’s not the little that I have always thought I had. Being content with all the blessings around me and learning that it’s not about my wants. Being content with my challenges and understanding they will bring growth and stretching, promises and blessings if I can stay strong through them and conquer them.
We have a very short time on this earth, and if we lived with a Kingdom mindset, so much of what we think is important really isn’t important. None of the material things around me are important. What’s important is being God’s love to others and making sure my family sees Gods love. Learning that there’s so much more than material things. Learning that my selfish ways don’t promote goodness and His glory, instead just the opposite.
It’s hard to stop being selfish and to have an attitude of gratitude, but as we let go of more and more of our soulish, selfish ways, we begin to live a better, more meaningful life. A life modeled after Jesus, who paid the ultimate sacrifice and laid down His life for us.
That’s true dying to oneself, to the point of laying down your life for others. I have a long ways to go. But I am learning to see the beauty in the process of giving up, losing my selfish ways, losing my colors of selfishness and gaining new colors of other-centered and not me-centered thinking.
Because as they say, there’s beauty in the ashes. I like this quote:
So God makes what seems dead, dying and hopeless beautiful again. The death to myself, is replaced with the beauty of new life, a better life.
Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit
Our Pastor has been teaching about this the past couple of weeks. So good!