Either way, the changing season is here, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

Around this time of year, I lug out the big plastic tubs filled with the kids’ fall and winter clothes that I’ve been storing in a closet since May and start making the switch: packing up lightweight shorts and t shirts and getting out bulky sweaters and jeans. It’s a little warm still for fleecy onesie pajamas, but I get those out too, and the kids always get a kick out of them and want to put them on…until they start sweating and remember it’s still above freezing, and they may be overdoing it a bit.

Despite the hassle of changing over seasonal clothes…

I also really appreciate the ritual because it reminds me of how life doesn’t stand still, and neither do we. Every year, someone reaches for a favorite outfit from the year before, only to find that the pants are now highwaters or the long-sleeved shirt has become a mid-sleeve. Or, on the flip side, someone grins proudly as the outfit she has watched a big sister wear is now passed on and she finally fits into it. It’s a right of passage, a tangible marker of growth and development.

In the routine of daily life, it can be easy to miss the progress that is happening on a miniscule scale. But when we approach it from the perspective of comparing since last year, the change is usually significant.  And it’s not usually just physical either. While our babies’ bodies have been growing, so too have their hearts and minds if we have been faithfully stewarding these precious gifts we have been given. It’s not always as obvious to see the imprint that family devotions and discipleship has on their souls, but it’s there. Sometimes it comes out through a sweet hymn they sing of their own accord while playing, the compassion they show to the panhandler at the traffic light, or even their remorsefulness after calming down after misbehaving.

The promise we are given in Philippians 1:6 reminds us that we are all being changed. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

So, as we see bellies showing under too short of shirts that fit only last year,

so too should we be on the lookout for spiritual growth. May we not only be nourishing our children’s bodies but pointing them to the One who nourishes their souls as well. As we buy them new clothes and hope they last at least one season before they continue growing like weeds and shoot out of them, may we also teach them to celebrate that God has “clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

And they’re not the only ones, Mama. We are changing too. It may not be as cute to outgrow our clothes as it is to see it happen to our littles, but we serve a faithful God, and if we have sought to please him and to train up our children to love him, we are also being changed in the process. It’s not always easy to detect the growth, but sanctification takes a lifetime. So, let’s offer up praise for the little changes: the way we are ever so slowly growing in patience or giving up our need for control. Whatever your challenges and temptations are, try thinking back to a year ago. Maybe you’ve grown a bit; if not, maybe this is the year you will allow God to stretch you. As we find ourselves shaking out wrinkled clothes and allocating things to the donation pile or the save pile, we have so much to be thankful for: a closet full of clothes, growing children, and the gentle reminder that comes every autumn: