....and Summer fades.

It's always hard for me to enjoy Fall weather coming on because it means Winter is close on its heels. 
I'm trying to learn not to complain about the cold so much, but it's just so..... COLD!   
When I think about grumbling, I try to remember all the reasons I'm glad that it gets cold here, and praise the One who thought of making four separate and distinct seasons.  He is good. 
....even when I'm freezing.  ;-)
So here's the list I need you to remind me of every time you hear me complain:

Reasons I am grateful for the Winter:

•  The cold keeps us from having all the snakes, scorpions, spiders, fire ants, chiggers, no-see-ums, and other plagues they have in the South. 
• Winter gives us farmers a chance to rest, recuperate, and TRAVEL.
• Shotgun and Muzzleloader deer seasons are both in the winter!
• Snow
• Icicles
• Everything gets remade into something new and young again in the Spring - a visible reminder of what the Gospel does for me. :-)

Okay, that's all I can think of.  But it's a start!

I realize that in the world of blogging it's probably not exactly acceptable to blog in, say, March, and then not again until August, but hey.  It's my blog, and I'll do what I want.  :-P

Spring planting was way late because of the ridiculous amount of rain we got, and once again we made an {almost} seamless transition from planting straight into wheat harvest.   And for the third year in a row, the rain completely shut off after we got the crops in the ground.  Who's in charge of that anyway?  :-/

The corn is pretty sad - probably won't amount to much, but there is still hope for the soybeans.
God has been gracious, and it's started raining again this week after two months without any significant rainfall, and the hottest, driest July on record here. 
I'm okay with the HOT part, but the dry part?  Not so much.  Again - learning not to complain. 
Verses I've been trying to take to heart as I have watched the corn wither for the third consecutive year, knowing the financial pressures we'll face as a result:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's,
he makes me tread on my high places."  -Habbakuk 3:17-19

God must be the source of my joy.  If I find my joy and fulfillment in Him, it can never be lost, no matter what my earthly circumstances!  I love that.

 Part of the reason for my lack of blogging is that my thoughts and feelings have been to many and too complicated to write coherently.   The Holy Spirit is still at work within me, and I am amazed by what He has done!  Relationships I thought were hopeless have been restored; feelings I thought I could never let go have faded; things I thought were beyond my reach have arrived, and wisdom I thought would never be given to me has been given. 
God consistently does above and beyond what I could ask or think! 

Things are not perfect or complete - there remain broken and imperfect parts of my life, but the Restorer of all things is taking up my pieces and fitting them back together.  He's not putting them together the way I thought He would, or even the way I wanted Him to, but He is creating something new with all the old, dirty, broken parts I gave up for lost. 
What in the world.  :-)

If you read nothing else in this post, read this:  Looking at my life over the past several years, I am convinced that the best thing you can do for yourself is to immediately choose to recognize God's hand in the difficult places of life: accept the circumstances He has allowed, and surrender to the work He wants to do within you. 
When I have failed to do this, I have lived in pain, bitterness, anger and frustration.  But the times I have taken advantage of God's special grace and chosen to do see Him in my circumstances, there has been joy, peace, comfort, and healing.  Even within the pain.   
The times I have honestly told God "I don't even WANT to be healed, but I know I need to be, so get me ready for it and do it in spite of me"  He has been faithful to do it.
I don't know how He does, it but He's sure good at it!  All it takes is my surrender.