I’ve said it before, but I really hate winter.
The winter months are just so bleak and blah and dismally gray. Not to mention cold! I struggle with the winter blues and all the depression and lethargy that goes with it, and this time of year usually finds me weak and desperately gasping my way toward winter’s finish line. Al… most….. there. Al….. most…… spring…
No doubt there are some among you who adore winter. I. just. can’t.
No, give me warm weather, sunshine, and flip-flops! Give me a bazillion shades of spring green and flowers and long days of bright sunlight and, yes, even seemingly unbearable heat. I prefer summer misery to the winter kind any day of the week.
And yet, as much as I love spring and summer, I know I only appreciate them because of the winter I must endure to reach them. It may even be that the only thing that makes summer so wonderful for me is the fact that winter is so dreadful.
But isn’t it usually true that we appreciate most the things that were the hardest to come by?
What comes easily never holds its value.
In life it is the things that we wait for, strive for, and show persistence toward that mean the most to us in the end. While it’s not impossible to be truly grateful for those good things that come without much effort of our part, there is no question we hold most dear what took us great pains to acquire.
And the fact is, winter does end. Every year it is the same: Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter. And then it’s spring again! The length of the season might seem to change a little, or the weather might be a little more or a little less extreme from one year or the next, but the spring always comes. And surely a huge part of surviving winter is holding onto the hope of a coming spring.
So maybe you’re in a season of striving. Of struggling. Of losing. Maybe you question if things will ever be better, if the toiling will ever come to an end.
It will. It has to. Because spring always comes around again. Nobody can stop it, no matter what they do or how hard they try.
Spring will come. And we will rejoice all the more for the long, dreary winter we endured to reach it.
“…You now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” John 16:22
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
I’m right there with you this year, and every year for that matter. I find this time of year trying because I am so ready for the warmth to come back so I can thaw out. You are right though, it will, it always does. Have a great week and stay warm!
I’m getting more and more glimpses of the coming spring every day! And it can’t happen soon enough for my liking. 🙂 Hope you get to enjoy an early spring this year, Amanda. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
We have pretty mild winters here in the desert Southwest. But I find I’m always ready for the change in seasons. I’m so excited to see things start blooming in the spring, but I get busy and tired of the extra work the yard requires by fall. So, I’m ready for that change, too.
I wish I could stretch summer out a lot longer than the others, but… I DO enjoy the change in seasons. And I really do believe I wouldn’t appreciate spring and summer if I didn’t have to endure the winter to get to them. It definitely makes me thankful when I start seeing all those green shoots and the buds on the trees!