The Beauty Inside You

Karin Beery

As a kid, summer was my favorite season (probably because I didn’t have to go to school). Now that I’m older, however, I find myself looking forward to fall, and it’s not just because I can comfortably wear jeans and sweaters. I think it started when I discovered the truth about leaves.

Did you know… leaves don’t actually change colors in the fall? The color is already in the leaves. What really happens is they lose the green, revealing their true identity. I probably learned about that in elementary school, but it didn’t impact me until a visiting pastor used it in a sermon. His point?

God put something unique and beautiful inside each one of us, but it’s often hidden behind bad habits, unrepented sins, and generational strongholds that bring out our worst instead of our best.

The good news?

God’s already made a way for us to get rid of the garbage! When we turn to him—when we trust in Jesus and pursue holy, biblical lives—those things begin to disappear. Then our true colors can emerge!

That’s not the only lesson we can learn from autumn’s leaves, though. Check out the timing and shades of the leaves. Some trees change colors early; others hold on until late in the fall. Red, orange, and yellow leaves fill the trees, but the patterns and shades vary from one leaf to the next.

It may take you longer to work through an issue than it took someone else, and you may not look like them when you’ve finally worked through it, but that’s okay! Your timing and your shade are your own.

That revelation—that the color is already in the leaf—has given me a new perspective on fall. I’ve grown a lot in my faith since I originally heard that message, but every year I still wonder: what other beautiful thing has God placed in me that he wants to reveal to the world?

Karin Beery grew up in a rural Michigan town, where she wrote her first novel in high school. Today, she writes contemporary stories with a healthy dose of romance. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s reading, editing, or teaching it. In her free time, she enjoys watching University of Michigan football and action-adventure movies with her husband and fur babies. You can connect with her at https://www.facebook.com/authorkarinbeery/

Ashley moves to a new town to marry her fiancé. Instead, she buries him.

Ashley Johnson moves to northern Michigan to finally meet her fiancé face-to-face, but she arrives in time to go to his funeral. With no home back in Ohio, she decides to stay in what would have been their house, except his cousin Russ lives there too, and Russ has never heard of Ashley. To complicate matters, her fiancé accidentally willed her the family farmhouse. Eager to please everyone and desperate to disappoint no one, she proposes a marriage of convenience that could solve her and Russ’s problems, if they can get past her aunt, his sisters, and an ex-girlfriend. You can find Practically Married on Amazon now.

Karin is going to give away an eBook copy of Practically Married to one lucky commenter. Just leave a comment, story, or question for her below. I will draw the winner next Wednesday, October 30, 2019.

THE FINE PRINT: CONTEST VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. ONLY US RESIDENTS WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE A PAPERBACK COPY OR EBOOK COPY FOR THIS DRAWING. EACH COMMENTER IS ASSIGNED A NUMBER AND THE WINNER IS DRAWN USING RANDOM.ORG. WINNERS WILL HAVE TWO WEEKS FROM THE DATE OF THE DRAWING TO CLAIM THEIR PRIZE.

OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN GUEST BLOGS ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE OPINION OF SARA L. FOUST, NOR AN ENDORSEMENT FOR GUEST’S BOOKS. I AM HAPPY TO HELP FELLOW AUTHORS GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT THEIR BOOKS, BUT HAVE NOT NECESSARILY READ ALL OF THE ONES THAT APPEAR ON MY BLOG. HOWEVER, GUEST’S BOOKS THAT APPEAR ON MY BLOG HAVE BEEN REPRESENTED TO ME AS BEING IN THE CLEAN-READS/CHRISTIAN GENRE.