Reflection on Fall

It's been awhile since I last posted. I love quiet mornings as fall approaches. Fall is my very favoirite time of the year. I love the warm days and cool nights and how the trees shed their leaves. I was thinking this morning that when I seek the Lord He often asks me to shed things. It is obvious that we need to shed sin and habits that are not God honoring but He often asks me to shed other things also. One of the hardest things to shed is my own natural self. I have certain traits that Ihave been born with. They were placed their by God to help me in the task that He has entrusted me with here on the Earth. Unfortunately they can also hinder my usefulness. I am by nature an introvert. When I let that rule me it is not good. I cannot be useful to God without relationships. I need to shed that part of me while not losing the part of that trait which is good and God ordained. Being an introvert has helped me to listen to others, it has helped me to notice when people are struggling and having a hard time. I don't want to lose that but if I don't take opportunity to enter people's lives it will all be for nothing. God also wants me to shed my pride. Ouch! I tend to have this feeling that my opinions are the right ones, that my plans are the ones to go with, and that my ideas are the best. That is of course foolishness. Through the years I have changed my opinion countless times,I have made horrible plans and my ideas are far from the best. I need to rest in the place God has me, rest in the knowledge that He will use me, and give up pushing and shoving my way through life. If my desire is, and it truly is, to serve God and to win those around me to Christ, I need to shed my useless leaves just as the trees shed their's in the fall.