Lessons from my mirror

A Lesson in Pruning

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” - Warren Buffett

Several years ago, we planted a live oak tree in our front yard. My husband prunes the tree each year in the early winter months. The first year I questioned why he was trimming them back because they seemed to be growing so well. He told me, “You will see next year how much fuller and taller it will be.” He knew that if he didn’t take them through a cutback, removing dead, dying, or weakly attached branches from the tree it would actually limit its growth, and it would not be as tall and thick as it should be. It has now grown into a tall, beautiful tree that helps shade our front porch from the Texas heat. In the same way, God sometimes takes us through a pruning season. He cuts things back not to limit us, but to get us prepared for new growth. God is not going to cut you back without a purpose. When you go through a cutback, a loss, things you don’t understand, remind yourself, God has the pruning shears. He is not going to prune you, to where you end up with less: less joy, less strength, less resources. That may happen temporarily, but if you will keep abiding, that cutback is leading to more fruit. God wouldn’t have allowed it, if he wasn’t going to bring you out better, stronger, wiser, with new growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has changed people’s lives in many ways. You may have been affected with a cut back, a job loss, or other changes not related to the pandemic, but like my husband told me about our tree, God is saying, watch where you are going to be next year.

When my husband was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2016, he had to take chemotherapy treatments for 8 months. He was unable to do the physical work required for our logging business and we had to sell all our equipment. Today, he is cancer free, and has a new land clearing business, including a project with an all-star basketball legend – an opportunity he would not have had if he would have remained in the logging business.

Trust God in the process. You will come out of the pruning season into a growing season, out of not having enough into having more than enough.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2 (NKJV)

Paula Enloe is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She has been a paralegal for over 25 years and is a certified family mediator. She and her husband, Noble, speak and minister to churches testifying of how God brought them healing into their home and their marriage, after he was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2016. They count it as their greatest privilege to share the healing and transformational power of the Name of Jesus to each person they come in contact with daily.