It’s so beautiful outside!  The trees are all scarlet and golden and bright oranges this year. The leaves have been falling in what the kidlets like to call “leaf storms,” swirling and flying every direction on their way down. Soon we’ll make huge piles of them, and I’ll do our annual leaf photo-shoot with the kids half buried in them and throwing them up in the air with all the laughs and squeals that come with.  It’s become a tradition.

For some reason, this season has also come with a time of fatigue, tiredness and a lack of motivation for me this year. Something that, as a homeschooler, usually doesn’t hit until around February. I’ve never been one of those bright-eyed, chipper morning people, and I’m one of those rare people that no amount of caffeine perks up, ever, so it’s not a pretty picture.  Our schedule this time of year doesn’t help much either, we are busy with evening activities 4 out of the 5 nights during the week.  Thankfully though, some of those events are coming to a close for the season soon, so that will help give us a little breathing room.

Still, lately it feels like there’s pressure to start school on time in the mornings, pressure to finish everything on our agenda for the school day, pressure to get the kiddos to soccer and music lessons on time, pressure to get dinner on the table on time and have time enough to eat before getting to other activities, and generally just overwhelmed with feelings of responsibility. Ever feel that way?

One comfort that I take with me on days that I’m feeling less than myself is this: My strength is made perfect in weakness, as long as I remember who the source of my strength is. I’m human. I’m frail. I tend toward laziness and negativity. God is none of those things.  I can’t do it all on my own, no matter how hard I try.

Days that get the better of me, on those days when I’m feeling bone-tired, bushed, done in, played out, spent, tuckered out, and flat out weary, it helps to remember that we have a God who understands. He’s given us the beauty of an autumn day when the tired trees are dropping their golden leaves, to remind us that there is hope.

He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. – Isaiah 40:29-31

Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, the Lord God is my strength, He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places. –Habakkuk 3:17-19

Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. -2 Corinthians 12:10

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. -Psalm 73:26