Prune Your Garden... Prune Your Life

I bought this little house plant just before our world was overtaken by COVID19.  It was small and it cost about five dollars.  Not a real splurge of a purchase, but it was not anything I needed.  I bought it just for me to satisfy my desire to be surrounded by beautiful growing things.  I brought it home and plunked the whole thing right inside a container that was a gift from a dear friend, once filled with a beautiful arrangement.  Looking at it while cooking dinner, unloading the dishwasher, or any other mundane house task brought me joy.  And then I noticed something.  Some of the leaves were turning dark.  As I inspected further, there were several leaves of my tiny little plant that were unhealthy.  I may not be Martha Stewart, but I am the granddaughter of Martha Jane, and we know how to love plants.  What had I done wrong?  I knew I needed to snip those leaves off.  And quick.  But, can I just be honest?  I didn't want to.  My little plant wasn't really that big, certainly not full.  Snipping away even those five or six little leaves was most certainly going to make this little darling look pitiful.  It took me a couple of days to get out the scissors.  I just didn't want to have to see my little plant bare, even though my plant loving heart knew without those unhealthy leaves sucking life and nutrients away, it would flourish.  Though it pained me to do so, I snipped and snipped, until I could see only healthy, green leaves.  I gathered the clippings and on the way to the trash, I found myself wondering how I could re-purpose them in some way.  I just didn't want to throw them out. Unhealthy?  Yes.  If used in another way, the fungus or ruining of these few clippings could possible destroy something else further.  I had to put them in the trash can.  This really shouldn't be so hard.  Finally, I dropped them in the garbage and waited patiently for my little baby to grow.

Flash forward a couple of weeks.  Our world looks different.  Businesses are closing their doors to contain a virus that has changed everything about how we live. I am watching the news as I unload the dishwasher and I look over to my growing plant...

I heard a message that unraveled quickly and slowly at the same time.  It will take more than a sentence or two to set the scene, so bear with me:

From June until February I worked part-time to supplement my income in a spa as a front desk gal.  In those eight months I grew to love my time there - greeting guests and making them feel adored, seen and heard.  Though the job was not perfect, having the opportunity to love on people made it worth all of the shortcomings.  It even taught me many lessons, including how quickly both positive and negative perspectives can grow, which I am thankful to have learned.  Then came a situation so upsetting I could not deny the negative impacts this job carried over into my home life.  For a week I had discussions with management about how things could improve, I studied my finances to find how I could manage without the additional funds, and I prayed.  A lot.  I finally came to a place of realization that this was no longer the place for me, though it hurt to leave.  I would miss the therapists I grew to admire.  I would miss greeting our clients with a smile and love.  And, I would miss the owners, too, as they had grown to be a part of my life.

And now, back to the message I heard.  Had it not been for that uncomfortable situation that forced me to take a hard look at whether this placed served me well and if it were truly necessary to my financial well being to stay, I would have lost this second job without warning during the closures of the pandemic.  I would not have been prepared or prayed up.  Losing this job would have been a crushing blow to our livelihood.  And even though it took me a while to 'get out the scissors,' I finally did it.  And in the absence of my second job, my family flourished again.  I am thankful for the situation in which I was forced to prune what was no longer serving me from my life.

I pray for wisdom and courage for you and for me to prune what not longer serves us.  And I pray for opportunities for you to share with others the pruning in your life to encourage and empower us to all to do the same.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.               John 15:2