Coffee Chat: Pruning is Painful!

Well, I am up very early this morning as a friend and I have decided to text each other to get up and do devotions. By God's grace, it hasn't been hard in the past to get up and spend time in His Word but I just have been getting up so late that my day feels rushed. To many, getting up at 5:30 am would be torture. Believe me...it is...for about 5 or 10 minutes. But, then, comes the sweetness of a quiet home, some quiet music, COFFEE (a must), a candle, and the blessing of approaching the throne of grace. It's just God and me...what a delight. So, after having a portion of my devotional/prayer time, I felt a blog coming on. So this is my early morning coffee chat. I'm so terrible about writing on my blog that I don't even know if anyone's reading it. But, I'm delighted to just journal for a moment :)

Back in February Dave and I were told that we had prune our bushes. A good friend from church showed me how to do it and I fear that once I had my own shears in my hands, I completely forgot everything she told me. I was slightly mortified to actually make the cut where she told me as it just seemed that I might kill the bushes. She assured me that it was necessary and that they would grow back. I wanted to believe her so badly but I'd never done this before. My bushes were about a foot above my head and she was telling me to cut them a foot above the ground. I was mortified. But, for new growth, she said I had to do it. Well, I made a few cuts and then handed over the shears to my hubby...good idea! He knew just what to do. Well, to my mortification, I walked into my beautiful front yard and what were once tall rose bushes now looked like sticks in the ground. This would all be fine and dandy if Dave and I actually owned the house we live in but all I could think was, "what will our landlord think?" Well, it couldn't have been a week later that I started seeing new growth. My friend was right, it was necessary! I wish I had a before and after because about one month later, there have got to be 30 or 40 buds on my bushes...some bushes that were so overgrown, they didn't even produce any roses. I don't know if you have any experience with rose bushes but they are truly miraculous! The leaves turn bright red as they muster up the courage and strength to produce a bud. It's really quite something.

Well, as I was walking around the garden just admiring the beauty and joy of these flowers, I got to thinking about pruning in my spiritual life. I have no control over it and only God knows when and where to prune. It's painful, it's ugly, it feels fruitless, it feels exposing. But in no time at all, what was once overgrown and dead in my heart, becomes something beautiful. What an encouragement this is to me, and I hope to you too, to realize that when God prunes, he does it because he has beautiful fruit in mind in your life. Allow the pruning process. I know it hurts, I know firsthand, and it's just not pretty. But the beauty that comes from it is unparalleled and better than what was there to begin with!

On a side note, and not a very spiritual one, while observing the new growth one morning, I saw aphids devouring my new plants. Looking up an "aphid" online, I saw that they are known for sucking all the moisture out of new plants. Oh what must have the neighbors thought, or people driving by, when I panicked and rushed outside with a bottle of insect killer and sprayed the heck out of those plants. I was furious...who do they think they are eating up my plants? Anyhow, those little pests are dead and gone and I'm over it...almost!