Encouragement

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©Sue Shields 12/03

In the movie with Forrest Gump, Forrest states life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get. While that statement is true to some degree, we never know what we will open up or discover in our life as we travel through the years.

However, I like to compare life in reality to the Four Seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter we experience yearly. As we observe all the splendors of each new season opening up a new year for us to partake of all that God has made for us and our own personal journey in life.

Spring is always exciting , everything starts to produce new growth, its exciting to watch flowers start to bud, gardens begin to grow the new produce for the season, even the animals seems to rejoice that a new season is upon them as they produce little ones for the year.

Summer arrives sooner than anyone really hopes for, time to take stock of all that has begun to grow and meet the needs that life passes on for the continuation in life we face. At times it can get a little distressing with the extra heat of summer, the extra work but it also is a season to enjoy with all we have managed to produce in life.

Fall comes much quicker than we realize, one day it arrives with a pleasant coolness in the air, as we understand our hectic life is beginning to slow down, its almost like a subsequent spring yet different in the fact that harvest time is upon us, the reaping of our efforts confront us now. If we have prepared well our gardens in life, we can make it through the next stages of our life.

Winter arrives with an irritating pace it seems; it may bring cool and crisp days or icy cold winds of illness that seem to smother your every thought at times. Old friends and family have already passed on and are waiting on us to arrive for the reunion in Heaven. It seems that your earthly body and mind is being prepared to loosen its hold on this old temporary life we have journeyed through. A new excitement within seems to speak to our hearts louder than the voices around us during this season of life.

All the four seasons have specific highlights as well as downfalls that happen during the season it seems. That is what makes us stronger for the challenges we have to face in this life. We grow stronger with every struggle we face in life. No one knows what they face, but each experience, each lesson we learn, each step we take produces strength in us if we take the time to listen and learn from them.

Isn’t life actually like that also? Take the new born baby all the way up to the young adult, all the excitement of everything new and waiting to explore all that life has set before them. Of course there are many hidden dangers present as well; that parents have to keep a watchful eye out for. That’s where the statement of ole’ Forrest’s fit, you never know what you will get, new adventures, the fun searching, yet each step of the way they are budding closer to the summer season of their life than they recognize. At this stage it’s all new and the adventures of life await them.

The first few years they learn to manipulate the parents and develop their own personality, and abilities they have been given by birth. This stage continues on until they start to school and many outside influences come their way that entices them even more.
Then we have the terrible teen years as they are called, they can really determine the directions and or downfalls one will face in life’s next stage. Some learn the value of working; some never do until forced to by circumstances beyond their control.

But sooner than one can blink an eye, we have young adults, seeking to start their own pathways in life. This is the beginning of the summer stage and this one lasts another twenty years or so. Careers and families are started and the hustle and bustle of activities these involve, trying to build a home and future while learning the deeper truths about life, God and Country are hastily thrown in the mix. Usually at this time they experience the joys and pitfalls connected to raising their own children. They now have the responsibility to watch over all their activities and help them find their future also.

Then we find ourselves in what some call the Empty Nesters, this is what I call the fall season of our life, where life gets a little slower, sometimes a lot slower. The enjoyment of grandchildren and great grandchildren often arrives during this period. Being a little wiser from past experiences in our own life, we can enjoy their innocence more while having the time to relate to the simple pleasures of their youthful endeavors. Our own bodies seem to start to retaliate against our younger thoughts, being unable to do all that we wish we still could. Life is slower and much more pleasant because we appreciate more what is important in this life.

Then too soon, the dreaded stages of the winter season of our life. Often illness or the death of a partner, elderly parents to care for, at this stage one looks back and wonders what they could have done differently, some have even lost children themselves at this stage. But there is a steadfastness it seems in people at this junction in life, especially if they have a commitment with the Lord, they realize how very true scripture is that states, life is just a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow. Our earthly life is so short compared
to the eternity that has been promised to us. The excitement of this life has faded and they look forward to the new life with the Lord.

Life is like a box of chocolates in the sense that none of us know what the Lord has destined into our own life, short or long as it may be. But we can know that He has it all under control from birth to death, He will never leave us to walk it alone.

In Psalms 139; we are told that we were known and all our days were numbered in our mother’s womb; why do we seem to worry about today when we know God is in total control from birth to death? Enjoy all the seasons God has given to you, not everyone has been given the same amount of time, only God knows that reason.

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