Showing posts with label season. Show all posts
Showing posts with label season. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 2

A Symphony of Seasons book tour


 


Today, I'm happy to be a part of the book blog tour for A Symphony of Seasons, written by my e-friend, Connie Arnold.









Seasons of Life

Some days we feel depressed and blue,
Not knowing what we are going to do,
Struggling just to get through the day,
Wondering why life must be this way.

Do you ever feel this way? I imagine most of us have felt at one time or another that life is a struggle, and we don’t know what we should do. Yet often things will turn around, and we will have days when things seem to go right and we enjoy life again.

These ups and downs of life are a bit like the seasons. Throughout our lives we will encounter change time after time and need to learn to find the joy and beauty of life again in our new circumstances.

For the ups and downs we face there are reasons,
Like nature, our lives also have seasons.

In autumn the leaves fall, leaving the trees looking lifeless and bare. Have you experienced that sluggish, exposed feeling in your life? Or as winter turns cold and icy, have you ever felt like you have a cold, frozen heart?

But, oh, the joy when spring returns with new life and beauty abounding! It is certainly a season of hope and renewal, and God brings this season into our lives as well, filling us with hope, renewed vigor and joy.

As summer brings warmth, sunshine and usually increased opportunities for relaxation and fun, the Son’s light shines into our lives bringing warmth to our cold hearts and joy to our lifeless existence.

In good times and bad, it’s increasingly clear
Every life has its seasons through each passing year.

May God bless you through each season of the year and all seasons of your life!

This is part of a Book Release Blog Tour for A Symphony of Seasons. The tour schedule is posted on Connie’s blog so you can visit as many of the stops as you can to enjoy more poems, photos, videos, reviews, interview and receive entries to prize drawings at the end of this tour. 

The two prizes are a Vivaldi Four Seasons CD and a hummingbird suncatcher wind chime. Enter the drawing for these two prizes by commenting below. Additional entries can be earned for comments left on the other blogs during the tour and for sharing this post or any of the posts during the tour on Facebook or Twitter (be sure to post a comment here when you do that so you'll get your extra entries). 

Purchase a signed copy of A Symphony of Seasons from Connie’s website Inspirational Poetry of ConnieArnold or email conarnold(at)gmail(dot)com to receive a free gift with your purchase, a framed nature photo from one of the seasons with a short verse. Be sure to specify if you have a preference for a particular season.

A Symphony of Seasons is also available from:
Smashwords
ebook available at a discount through May 31, 2012
Promotional price:
$3.25
Coupon Code:
QX77N

                                                                         
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Monday, March 21

Season of Renewal


“Then you send Your Spirit, and new life is born
to replenish all the living of the earth.”
(Ps. 104:30 TLB)

It’s here again…the first signs of renewal! Spring is poised, ready to pounce out from behind winter’s shadows.

But before creation blossoms forth with its spring beauty, nature always endures a season of travail. Trees stand lifeless, branches withered and devoid of blooms and fruit, appearing unproductive to all.

The Lord once said to me, “During the long winter months, when nature has seemingly lost all its beauty, life still flows deep within its darkest recesses. The trees appear naked and dead without their leaves and blooms. The ground seems hard and bare without the beauty of flowers and grass. But, in reality, life is ever-present, ever-flowing.

“It flows in the sap that is deep within the trees. It stirs within the seeds of flowers yet to bloom. Both are quietly at work, awaiting their appointed time to be awakened and spring to life.”

When the trees awaken from their seasonal slumber, they arise from darkness and decay to newness of rebirth, as their external starkness is replaced with bursts of beauty.

Spring’s animation then begins. Breezes swirl above the tree tops, tickling the fresh, new buds as they poke their tiny heads into the warmth of the sun. The streams overflow with the fullness of April’s showers and skip over the rocks as if gurgling with laughter, while May flowers crown their banks.

The Lord said, “Sometimes My people must also endure their long, winter months of travail when their fruit seems to have withered and their branches seem bare. But deep within their roots, My Spirit moves with eternal life.

“All may seem dark, lost, and devoid of life and beauty, but, in such a life lived with Me, My work still goes on. Allow My Life to flow through you, especially in the darkest of times, and then you will be renewed.”

Sometimes, swirling seasons of life swoop down upon us through storms of bereavement, affliction, or adversity, which leave us devoid of the blooms and fruit of our lives.

Though spring enters with whirling winds and rain, it still brings a message of hope, of new birth, not only to creation but to us as well. God’s timetable for regeneration is always on schedule for that eternal, divine Sap flows through us and bubbles up with new life at the designated time.

As we wait out those bleak seasons, expecting renewed inner beauty and strength, we can wait with assurance, as Isaiah said, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” (Is. 40:31 NKJV)

Does your life feel as though all your beautiful leaves have fallen from your limbs? Are the first signs of decay setting in, causing you to feel bare and fruitless? Has your inner strength diminished?

God’s Spirit of regeneration still flows within you. Your time of renewal will come. The Lord said, “All may seem dark, lost, and devoid of life and beauty, but, in such a life lived with Me, My work still goes on...Allow My Life to flow through you, especially in the darkest of times, so then will you be renewed.”

Whether your circumstances swirl around you or lie dormant, your life will again blossom with beauty as the Eternal Sap of Life brings renewal at just the right time.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth.” (Is. 43:19a Amp)



This is part of the Christianwriters.com blog chain for March on the topic of swirling. Check out the other great posts that are listed in the sidebar.

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