Lessons from the Seasons : Winter

As I mentioned in my first outline, winter is a time to "Be still and know"

While that sounds really restful (and a little abstract,) there is work going on in it.
During the winter months, as plants cease from the work of growing, maturing and producing fruit, they take on a different work..... the roots grow deeper.
I see in this analogy, that as we rest and wait on the Lord, we will grow more firm in our foundation. This has been true in my experience, though it can mostly be seen in hind sight.
Some of the most difficult times in my life became forced winters; and all I could do was be still. And it is during those same times that I grew so much more than during the easier days of springs and summers.
It brings to mind that it is not our working that does great things, but God's working in us.
"He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion."

Those dark and sometimes gloomy days can, in future times, be a beautiful reminder of His care and grace. My desperate moments when all I could do was cry, not even "cry out" just cry, are the times when I was upheld, and closest to my Lord.

Winters don't seem to be sweet times, like autumns. They have beauty all their own, yet they can contain some real difficulties. Maybe if I took time to "be still and know" when it wasn't out of sheer inability to do anything else, then I wouldn't see them this way. ;) But this has been my experience.