My two favorite seasons are fall and winter. I love the chill in the air, the colorful leaves and especially the frost and snow. When the thermometer begins to drop, my mood begins to rise.
My husband is the exact opposite. As a lover of warm weather, the temperature falls, his mood follows. Part of the issue is lack of sunlight. He loves to be outdoors during the day. So shorter days really wreak havoc with his outlook.
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Our son’s first deployment lasted from early fall to early summer and that added stress really caused my husband’s cold-weather doldrums to spiral. We made the connection early on and adjusted our lives to put in place three things to help alleviate his darkening moods:
1. We took advantage of every bit of daylight that we could. With work hours that wasn’t always possible during the week. So we began doing our usual indoor weekend chores in the evenings after work, saving Saturday and Sunday for things we could do outside.
2. We made a deliberate effort to spend more time together. We discovered that companionship really helped lift his mood.
3. We communicated more openly. I had been keeping my stress from him, and he was doing the same. This actually hurt the situation rather than help. When we began sharing our feelings, our burdens grew lighter instead of heavier.
I also realized that I’d been hibernating from God. So I took the above tweaks and applied them to my spiritual life:
1. I reminded myself that God is always with me and didn’t wait until things got bad to turn to Him.
2. I made a deliberate effort to reinstate my morning devotion time of reading the Bible and praying.
3. I reopened the lines of communication, keeping a conversation with God going throughout the day.
I didn’t stop these practices when our son returned home, making them my normal routine. It’s gotten me through some difficult days and made the normal times even more joyful. Through it all I’ve learned that we all benefit from more light–divine and otherwise–no matter where we are in life.
How do you keep spiritual sunshine shining brightly in your life?
