From the Home Place

November 10, 2025

Wow, this has been quite a fall. Most often we go from summer to winter with very little fall-like weather in between. Yet this year we have been blessed with so many beautiful days long after summer has bid farewell. The summer to winter cycle is very much like the walk of most Christians. Their walk with God is like either summer, warm and pleasant, or it is like winter, cold and difficult. Yet, I wonder if we are to consistently walk in the “fall” of faith?

Jesus stated that “each day has enough troubles of its own,” as a result, we tend to see most days as winter kinds of days. However, I’m playing with the idea of a consistent walk with God is more like these fall days, you know a mix of cold and warm weather throughout the day.

Yep, we have had a couple blasts of winter around here with snow and wind. But then we have had the blessing of days like today, 64 degrees! Life has its chilly moments, even downright cold at times, yet most days around here are a mix of weather. But here is the simple fact, none of us can make the weather be warm nor cold, we just have to deal with whatever it is.

The same is true of our faith journey, none of us can control what happens to us, but we can walk with the One who sends us the circumstances of life. It seems to me that it doesn’t matter if my day is filled with sunshine, or if it’s cloudy and cold, my responsibility is to walk closely with my Heavenly Father. I’m of the opinion that God often uses the circumstances of life as a means to us teach about ourselves or about Himself.

You see loved ones, when I get up and realize that today is going to be filled with wind, snow and cold, my tendency is to miss the blessings of the day. Because of the foul weather, I miss the lessons the Holy Spirit is attempting to teach me. It doesn’t matter if today’s circumstances are “cold” or “warm,” the Spirit of the living God is wanting to reveal a truth to me.

So today, the weather is forecast to be warm and pleasant, will our attitude match it? Or will we put on a cold and windy attitude and miss the blessing of getting to walk with our Lord for another day? Remember, we can no more control our circumstances than we can control the weather, but we can control our attitude about both! With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can make more winter days turn into fall days.

Dr. Vernon Doerksen used to tell us, “Reading a book is like eating fish, you eat the meat and spit out the bones.” I am suggesting each day is very similar to Dr. D’s method, “eat the meat and spit out the bones.”

Remember when you were small and Mom would serve fish, someone would help you remove most of the bones from your serving, yet they would still tell you, “eat carefully.” Well, the Holy Spirit is now our adult helper. He will quite often help us remove the “bones” from most days, yet He too, tell us, “now eat carefully.”

Enjoying another beautiful day with you, Neal