just a trim

Yesterday my sisters and I did some yard work. The weather was FINALLY so pretty we took advantage of it before it turned to rain today and tomorrow. =(

One of the jobs that needed to be done was pruning the crape myrtles in the front. They were very shaggy. As I was trimming I kept recalling the words of my neighbor, "you have to take it back to strong, solid branches. Get rid of all the dead, weak, and scrawny twigs hanging off. Leave it looking something like this."

My neighbor is a wise man. He did not win the County's award for beautiful lawn (although I think he should), but he could probably teach anyone willing to listen how to make a yard beautiful and healthy. So, he spoke, I listened, and followed his advice...and memorized VERY carefully my other neighbor's freshly trimmed crape myrtles (who by the way, did win the award). =)

Back to the trimming...I realized something. That sometimes coming out of the winter and in preparation for the spring God has to prune us. He has to cut back the branches so we grow, take away the dead twigs so we bloom to our fullest, cut back and take away any branches causing the over all appearance to lack, and take us back to the solid strong branches.

Does it look pretty? I don't think so. I think a freshly pruned crape myrtle is not one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. In fact it is quite u-g-l-y. Whitish, naked sticks coming out of the ground.

Is it beneficial? ABSOLUTELY! I know what the crape myrtle is capable of now that it has been trimmed. Come summer (I think) beautiful lacy pink flowers will canvas those whitish naked branches making them beautiful again.

The trimming process is hard. I mean really, those sheers are huge. Who wants to be whacked at with those!? But, in the process it is being formed and shaped to fully be the plant it was created to be. For the moment, it is hard. It is not pleasant. The result is worth the pain. Hebrews 12:11

If you don't trim and crape myrtle it become shaggy, scraggly, and crazy. Proverbs 13:18

Come summer, a pruned crape myrtle blooms and blooms to it's fullest. Psalm 94:12 and Job 5:17

If a crape myrtle is left to it's own they grow wildly, untamed. When summer comes, they don't bloom beautifully. The underneath is barren and dead looking and it is masked by the blooms on top. It is not easily hidden and screams so. The gardener has to take it back if it cares at all how it grows. Hebrews 12 and Revelation 3:19

The present pain being trimmed and humbled is resulting later in a growing, blooming, flourishing plant constantly becoming who God made it to be.