More Than Just a Pile of Leaves

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” Psalm 69:30

This time last fall Carter was only six months, and we were celebrating milestones of him starting to crawl, babble, and all of his first holidays.  Now, Carter is 18 months and things have changed.  I have to say I LOVE this age.  We are still celebrating lots of “firsts” of course, that hasn’t changed.  But our firsts are becoming more exciting and fun to celebrate.  I always talk about how much Carter loves being outside.  He loves his swing, he loves to try and run as fast as he can, he loves to throw rocks and more.  He’s been wanting to sneak his way down to the beach lately too!  Little does he know how cold the water is at this time of year now.  I looked around our yard and noticed how many leaves had finally fallen off the trees, and decided today was going to be Carter’s first pile of leaves.

It was an absolutely beautiful fall day.  We have all been fighting a cold in our household, so we have been stuck inside.  Plus the rainy weather we’ve had didn’t make it any easier!  It was wonderful to finally go outside and get some fresh air.  The sun was shining, and the wind was calm.  I went down to our big garage and brought one of our rakes out.  Carter was already interested.  He followed close behind as I brought the rake up to our cabin and started making a pile of leaves.  He stood there and watched me for a few moments, and then asked his favorite question “Was Dat?” (his own version of “what’s that”).  I said “Mommy is raking leaves buddy.” He smirked and kept watching.

Carter is at a phase where if I’m cleaning or making a nice pile of something, he knocks it down or makes a mess of it again.  The leaves were no different!  He plopped down into the pile, started grabbing the leaves and kicking his feet around, all full of giggles.  It was adorable.  We tossed leaves in the air and watched Bella run through them too.

I had one of those moments where time seemed to stop or move in slow motion, kind of like in the movies?  I looked down at Carter laughing, and watched as Bella was chasing after a stick that was in the pile of leaves.  I thought to myself, God is so good.  How great is our God?  This pile of leaves, that was actually mostly pine needles, he gave to us.  This beautiful sunny day, he gave to us.  Our beautiful baby boy Carter, he gave to us.  Our food, our water, our air: the list is endless.  Do you ever have those moments?  Where you just feel God’s presence?  I knew he was there, as he always is, but I really felt him in this moment.  So many times I move so quickly throughout the day, picking up after Carter, making breakfast and other meals for our family, trying to keep up on laundry, etc.  As much as I do try, I don’t stop myself very often to “smell the roses” or however you want to say it.  I need to remind myself to slow down and to just look around.  I’ve wrote about it before, but because I know I need to be reminded, I am writing it again.  There is SO much to be thankful for.

All of these big thoughts started with a little pile of leaves.  It’s funny how God places those little moments in our lives right when we need them.  But if you don’t take the moment to take that deep breath and look around, you might miss it!  Little did I know that my idea of raking Carter’s first pile of leaves would turn into so much more.  I couldn’t feel more blessed that it did.  I encourage each of you to take the challenge throughout each day and try to catch yourself in those “still” moments, where God is trying to peak through to you.  I am working on it for myself too!

I’d love to share with you another one of my favorite worship songs lately to help get you through your morning, afternoon, evening, whenever you might read this post.  Your support means so much to me.  Thank you so much again!

Lots of love and God Bless,

Alyssa