{"id":3052,"date":"2017-03-30T07:58:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T07:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifereader.com\/articles\/?p=3052"},"modified":"2017-04-04T00:36:09","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T00:36:09","slug":"turning-with-the-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifereader.com\/articles\/turning-with-the-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning With The Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Counselor Karen:<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span> Life is always changing. I am quite positive that you have questioned many times why life is not going the way you planned at times. Why are you sometimes filled with unspeakable joy, yet at others down and depressed because you feel life is stealing that joy? It does not have to be a roller coaster of emotions.<\/p>\n

There are reasons that life gives you these ups and downs. Maybe in the moment you cannot see the reason, but I promise within a few months to a few years you will look back and realize the reasoning behind it.<\/p>\n

\"karen3\"<\/a> My life has not always been joyful. I went through a nasty divorce and then married someone that had a nasty divorce, leaving us with many years of unhappiness because of the arguments and raising a blended family all in the process. There were days I woke up so discouraged because we were not doing so great financially. But one thing I always remembered in these times was that I was being refined. God was making and molding me into the person He wanted and needed me to be today.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I did not put on a happy face and dance around singing at these times. I actually was probably quite miserable to be around and negative. But one day something changed in me during those hard times. I figured out that I was causing my own unhappiness to last longer than it should have. I was fighting the exact things in my life that God was trying to fix. Being a bit of a control freak that I am, I was thinking that my way was better. Really???? If that was true I was sure failing at that particular season in my life.<\/p>\n

The thing that clicked with me after 17 years, yes 17 years I said, is that I needed to let go and let God take control of my life. It was then I realized if I did not start finding joy in the midst of hardship, I was never going to withstand any of the seasons of my life. I actually found some positive quotes that I read and prayed about every day. One of them by Joel Olsteen, Pastor, which read something like, God knows the desires of your heart, and He knows the perfect timing for those desires to prosper in my life. See, I was not trusting in what was for me; I was being bitter because my life was not perfect. The minute I released that right to control my misery, my spirits lifted. It was then I could see the light and started to do things to change my life in a positive way that later would impact my life in a permanent way.<\/p>\n

Life does not bring you seasons of hardship to break you down and make you want to quit. Life brings you seasons of hardship to mold you. To grow you up into the amazing person that you were meant to be. Now I don\u2019t look at bad seasons as horrible, I learn to turn with the season, knowing that God has another joyful season right behind it. Seasons have no time frames for us, but life does.<\/p>\n

I just encourage you when you are going through a season that is not fitting into your everyday life the way you want it too, to turn to prayer and faith. In these seasons hang out with people that are positive and can build you up and be there for you when you need a hand to be helped up. When the joyful season comes, rejoice and embrace it with all you have! Because in a joyful season you celebrate just how far you have come. It replenishes your soul. Seasons come and go, but what you make of them determines the person you become.<\/p>\n

\"karen2\"<\/a>