As I was doing some pruning recently, I had to make some hard cuts.
Just like thinning sprouts in a vegetable garden, when you prune, you don't just remove what is dead, you often remove green as well. This has always been hard for me, so I have tended to hold back on pruning.
In the past few years I have become more aggressive in my pruning, and have been surprised by the increased bounty as a result. The plant's energy is less diffused and is able to focus on putting forth more flowers and fruit, instead of more branches.
As I cut away dead branches and green branches the other day, I was thinking about how I resist God's pruning in my life. I can accept Him pruning the dead branches. Yet on more than one occasion God has cut something out of my life that I thought was good, and could have borne fruit. I've mourned those green branches.
But like an experienced gardener, God anticipates the increased harvest.
Oh Lord, give me the faith to trust your pruning shears!
Oh yes! This is what I needed to read before heading into a new season of homeschooling. I am very resistant to the pruning process. Seeing it from this angle makes it seem less like loss.
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