Fall

I have a love/hate relationship with fall. I love school supplies, sweaters, long sleeves, fun socks, jeans, playing outside in the cooler weather, and feeling cool sheets around me as I go to sleep. I love how the kids sleep better when it's cooler. I love the anticipation of the holidays and happy memories of years past. I want to really love fall. But I don't.

The cold, darker days make it harder to get out of bed, the kids sleep later and don't want to get ready for school, it's harder to motivate myself to do things, and watching the leaves and grass turn brown and go dormant is a little depressing. It's easy to feel nostalgic, miss family and friends, and remember how short and fleeting mortality is.

Which leads me back to what I absolutely love most about fall. The physical changing of the seasons and the word itself, fall, always reminds me of my own imperfections and complete dependence on the only one who overcame death and brings life and light to the world.

When my kids argue with me or fight with each other or just need a time out, they get to sit in the kitchen and work on memorizing a scripture with me. Right now we're working on a verse that describes our relationship with the Fall really well:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Mosiah 3:19

I'm thankful for fall, for the constant reminder of what the Savior did for me, how much I need his sacrifice, and how much he loves us all.