My Season of Spring

Cabin fever---BE GONE!

Winter is past. Spring has arrived! Green things are pushing up through the brown earth seeking the warmth and nourishment of the sun.  The first joyful colors of the season are showing their timid faces! The brave little crocuses have bloomed, willing to endure the last few frosts that are sure to come before summer.  It's a wonderful time!

I love this time of year.  I love to get out and soak up the fresh air, feel the sun on my face, and have the freedom of  again being outdoors!  Every day I inspect my flower beds for new growth. Yesterday I was ecstatic to see my first few crocuses had bloomed.  I have started thinking about annuals that I want to plant, and little changes I want to make to my flower beds.  I've spent time outside raking leaves and cleaning up some of the mess leftover from fall and winter, readying everything for the growth that is taking place which will fill my yard with vibrant color!

This is the time of year when my craft projects and my reading get put on hold because I just want to spend as much time as I can outside.  The kids love it too.  They run around in our wonderful little back yard.  We invite the neighbor children over to play.  I take the kids for bike rides around the block.   We play on the playground down the street, and we fall into bed blissfully exhausted and looking forward to the fun we'll have tomorrow!  

I feel like it is spring in my heart as well.  The last year...well, the last several really, have been a bit of a winter-time for me. But I see  God is using the seasons to prepare soil of my heart, so that beautiful flowers can spring forth for his glory.   I may still have to endure frosts, and winter may come again, but for now I'm so thankful it's spring! 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

Linked to: Thankful Thursday meme being hosted at Women Taking A Stand.