The world looked like fire from the view of her bedroom window. The leaves on the trees had been set ablaze by the match called Fall. Life as she had known it, of thin layers and barefoot days, was slowly burning to smoke, leaving behind ashes of leather boots, sweaters and the scent of earth in the air.

“I love the fall,” she said. “There is something lovely about it. It reminds me of the perfect kiss; sweet and intimate, zestful with the shock of chilled lips that slowly ebb into a warmth that leaves you hypnotized, never wanting to let go.” She closed her eyes to the warm caress of the sun’s rays sliding over her eyelids like the softest silk before she pushed away from the window.

She wrapped herself within her own arms and smiled brightly. No one was there with her, no one except God, the One who had created the Fall with her in mind and heart.

The Beginning.

THE BLESSING IN THE AUTUMN SEASON
There is a wonder about the Autumn or Fall season that far exceeds the beauty of brightly colored leaves, the scent of apples and the warmth of stews and comfy sweaters.

Autumn comes with the promise that with the shedding of the old, something fresh and brand new is on the horizon. The blessing of stepping into this season is like celebrating a job-well-done. We began last Autumn planting seed for harvest in the Spring. Planted in the Spring and harvested again. And now as the leaves turn into fire and burn away into the Winter season, we prepare the cycle all over again.

So many of us, however, don’t capture the advantage of this season. Many of us like to dream about planning for the future once we are right on the threshold. We don’t make our plans to get healthy, start saving, creating margin, starting a new business, writing our book, the list goes on, until January first.

But the reality is, when we wait until January to begin our planning, we have already lost the race before even beginning it. To start in January is equivalent to being at the starting line of a race and getting dressed for said race the moment the gun is fired to begin running.

THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE AUTUMN SEASON

This is the season of quiet and vision casting. We here at ICFTS believe that Summer is a season to rest from all the sowing and reaping from the previous Fall into the start of Summer. It is a time reflect on what was done, to abide with Christ and gain refreshing and vision for the start of the new sowing season.

The quiet found in Fall is the perfect time to take what you’ve gained in your times of clarity during the Summer months and begin vision casting for the new year that is only three to four months away.

This is a season of letting go. As we cast our visions, we are able to reflect on methodologies that have not worked, shed those, and imagine new ones to implement in the coming year.

This is a season of conditioning. Now that we have cast our vision, shed unnecessary weights, we are now able to condition ourselves for the sowing season that is coming January first.

The Word of God tells us that the ant prepares in the Summer for the harvest that is coming. Again, we at ICFTS prepare by resting, abiding, and gaining clarity. Then we step into the Autumn with a plan for harvests to come (PROVERBS 6:6-8, 30:24-25) .

We encourage you that as the weather changes, nature begins to pull over itself the blankets of sleep, that you, like the ant, take this time to plan for the new year and new decade to come. Be ready to run at the firing of the gun and take hold of what you are dreaming for!

~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

 

–Candice Coates is an author, blogger, and contributor to Ambo TV. This article originally appeared on her website www.icameforthesoup.com.