Yesterday, for the first time this year, I had to sweep yellow, brown, and orange leaves from my front porch. Company was coming. I wanted a clean, welcoming porch. I realize that in a matter of days, my porch will be overladen with leaves. It seems I must be in a wind tunnel because my neighbors\u2019 leaves seem to make their way to my front porch and bushes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As their bright green color fades, it seems the leaves fall almost as quickly as they change. Part of me longs for the leaves to hold on a little longer. “Come on. You\u2019ve got this. Think green!\u201d But graciously the tree only listens to its Maker rather than my senseless longings. In order to flourish in the new season, the tree must let go of its decayed leaves. They\u2019ve done their job well for their season, but their time has drawn to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am reminded that the leaves display an important lesson for all of us to follow. Just as the trees don\u2019t stubbornly hold on to their dead leaves, so we shouldn\u2019t hold on to the unnecessary weights of negativity that has clung on way too long in our lives. I am so ready to move on to a new season when the old one has been filled with stinking thinking, poor self-image, mistakes made, regrets and disappointments. It\u2019s time to move on to a new season and let go of the past. So, I\u2019m getting my game plan ready for \u201cshaking my tree\u201d to get all those \u201changing on\u201d negative leaves to let go and fall \u2013 especially the ones that try to impede my peace and joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, how God longs to empower and strengthen us for the new season ahead! So much awaits us when we let the past go. \u201cForget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.\u201d Isaiah 43:18,19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s time for us to release the grasp of the \u201cdead and unfruitful\u201d leaves that prevent a freshness to the season ahead. Could it be that the decayed leaves have piled up and our heart needs to discard them for good \u2013 once and for all? God longs to help us let go. All we have to do is go to Him in prayer and ask Him to shine His light on any thoughts, circumstances, habits or other \u201cdecayed leaves\u201d we might be clinging to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you and I watch the leaves fall this season, my prayer is that you are reminded to let go of anything that would hinder a fresh relationship with God. I\u2019m praying that prayer for me, too! I\u2019m \u201cletting go\u201d and letting God have His way in me in this blessed new season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, for the first time this year, I had to sweep yellow, brown, and orange leaves from my front porch. Company was coming. I wanted a clean, welcoming porch. I realize that in a matter of days, my porch will be overladen with leaves. It seems I must be in a wind tunnel because my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15642,15641,15639,15640],"tags":[1210,15645,12145,15646,1034,1810,6311,1469,15644,11959,3385,15643,6112,8635,1470,15647,15649,15648,15650],"class_list":["post-11422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dead-leaves","category-forget-former","category-leaves-fall","category-think-green","tag-blog","tag-color-fades","tag-dead","tag-decayed-leaves","tag-fall","tag-flourish","tag-game-plan","tag-leaves","tag-leaves-fall","tag-lesson","tag-let-go","tag-maker","tag-negative","tag-new-season","tag-season","tag-shaking-my-tree","tag-shine-his-light","tag-unfruitful","tag-wind-tunnel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11424,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11422\/revisions\/11424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}