Autumn of My Life

I've always adored autumn.   Perhaps, it's because I was born in autumn.

People are always speaking of seasons in our lives....youth, young married, or prime timers.  It's always said to enjoy the season that you're in because they go by quickly.   It’s interesting how you really can't appreciate a season until you are past the peak of it.

As I was walking with the Lord this morning, taking in the beauty of the fall colors, I felt this spoken into my spirit...”You are in the autumn of your life.”  Getting old has always scared me and I thought that if you will youth to stay, it would.  I always wondered why old people "let themselves" get wrinkly.  Why didn't they will those wrinkles away?  Funny how smart we are when we're young :)

For the first time, saying that I'm getting older doesn't scare me as much as I'm saddened by the fact that I didn't appreciate my spring and summer seasons as much as I should have.

I want to make sure that I appreciate and enjoy every second of my autumn.

I turned 40 last November.  I have enjoyed an amazing year!  I've done things this year that I never knew I could!  I went on my first mission trip, sold our house of 8 ½ years, God opened up new doors of ministry—stretching my faith muscles and learning to trust Him in new ways, and now I’m on this incredible RV adventure on the “Will of God Trail.”

I'm heading into 41 in a few weeks...on Thanksgiving Day, actually.  I have so much to be thankful for.

I'm primarily thankful to be in my autumnal season.  I pray that this season is the one that I show off the deep colors of God in my life.  That through the beauty of the inner workings He has done in me, that the outer will be on glorious display...drawing people unto Him, the way the Great Smoky Mountain National Park draws millions of visitors during it's autumnal display.

Have you taken time to sit and take in the gorgeous yellows, oranges, and reds, brilliant against a blue sky?  That is one of my most favorite nature scenes.  I find energy in the brilliance of those colors.

One characteristic of autumn, is that the days are shorter.  I've noticed that about my energy, too.  In my mind, I can accomplish the longest summer's day worth of activity.  However, the reality is that my days are shorter, too.  Even though they are shorter, they are oh so much sweeter.  The constraints of autumn makes me really concentrate on doing God’s perfect will for me for the day He has made.

Autumn is the one season that leaves long lasting evidence that it has been here.  Spring comes with blooms that turn into leaves.  Summer allows us to enjoy the shade those leaves provide.  But autumn, it drops its leaves to the ground after its color show…nourishing the soil for the future.  I pray that the remnants of my life are the nourishing foundations for the generations that come behind me.  May the generations grow strong in the Lord, so that the world is drawn unto Him through their lives.

My dear, sweet husband has so graciously allowed me to have the “autumn of my life” living the month of October in the Tennessee mountains.  I have heard and seen new, richer colors of God while here.  I’m refreshed and renewed for the season ahead.  I pray that I can give God every moment of my autumn for His service, while being full present savoring the season.  We never know how long seasons may last, so we best use our season of life to the full, so we don't pass into the next with regrets.

~Kellie~