{"id":1490,"date":"2012-07-07T18:50:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1490"},"modified":"2012-07-06T13:47:24","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T17:47:24","slug":"pruning-can-be-painful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/07\/pruning-can-be-painful.html","title":{"rendered":"Pruning Can Be Painful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine these lovely roses being cut and chopped off.\u00a0 Do you think this is an enjoyable experience?\u00a0 If plants felt pain, I bet it would hurt.\u00a0 Try pressing a pruning shears against your skin and see what it feels like.\u00a0 Pruning is a lot like deadheading your flowers.\u00a0 The more you trim off the dead and cut off the old blossoms, the more the plant will produce.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The dictionary defines pruning as a removal of unwanted matter.\u00a0 The cutting back of parts of a plant to allow for better shape and more growth.\u00a0 The trimming away of unproductive branches or flowers will always lead to better yields.\u00a0 This applies to people just like it does to plants.\u00a0 When we leave the waste on a plant it continues to draw strength from the root systems, which takes away from new growth.\u00a0 Some plants cannot produce new buds or blossoms until the dead ones are removed.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many Christians, in fact most if we are honest, carry around a lot of dead weight.\u00a0 This often is in the form of bad memories, past hurts and failures, and broken relationships.\u00a0 We carry them around so long that we forget they are still holding us back, or we get so accustomed to them that we fail to even recognize them as\u00a0hindrances.\u00a0 God wants us to be free of these things that so easily distract and deafeat us.\u00a0 That can be very painful and often we would rather “let sleeping dogs lie”, than deal with the pain.<\/p>\n

Remember that God loves us so much. He would never hurt us or cause us distress that wasn’t necessary for our spiritual growth.\u00a0 When Jesus or the Holy Spirit come to us with the pruning shears, it is with love and compassion.\u00a0 It is with tenderness and a desire to help us grow in a more productive way.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0bush doesn’t know when it needs pruned.\u00a0 Flowers don’t realize the signifigance of deadheading.\u00a0 But, the Master Gardener knows what is best for all things and He will do the best job of knowing when and where to cut the worthless stuff from our lives.\u00a0 We must trust Him to do the work in us and to provide whatever we need to walk through the pruning process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine these lovely roses being cut and chopped off.\u00a0 Do you think this is an enjoyable experience?\u00a0 If plants felt pain, I bet it would hurt.\u00a0 Try pressing a pruning shears against your skin and see what it feels like.\u00a0 Pruning is a lot like deadheading your flowers.\u00a0 The more you trim off the dead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[17,21,45],"class_list":["post-1490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-courage","tag-nature","tag-personal-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nPruning Can Be Painful - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/07\/pruning-can-be-painful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pruning Can Be Painful - 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