I love spring. I love being outside in the mild temperatures. I love watching things that were brown and gray turn to bright green. I love when little blossoms begin to peek out. One day nothing, and another day brings new life! I love going around and snipping off old growth, pulling up weeds and removing grass from growing inside my flower beds.
Today I went outside and saw the first leaf buds on my Crepe Myrtle trees. I panicked! I hadn't trimmed them back yet! Last year was their first spring after being planted (and you are not supposed to trim them the first year). I watched patiently as they began looking more like bushes than the trees I had planted them to be. I had intended to trim them back in February... but life happened... and so, when I noticed that my window of opportunity was closing, I ran inside to get my "nippers" and then out again to work while the older kids finished their seatwork inside and the two little boys played in the yard.
I remember the feeling of timidity that comes over me every time I go to cut back my Crepe Myrtles. It seems so wrong to cut off perfectly good, functioning branches. It goes against reason to cut back a tree that looks quite tree-like and make it look like simple sticks pointing skyward. But, and I have learned this over the last 7 years of having Crepe Myrtles to care for, it is necessary. If I want them to look like trees and not bushes, it is non-negotiable. If left to their own, Crepe Myrtles will grow in every which way. "Suckers" will begin at the base of the tree and just keep growing new shoots so close to the ground that the tree will stop growing in height.
With proper pruning, a Crepe Myrtle can be trained to grow skyward. Not only that, but with watchful pruning, and catching each little new growth off the main trunks, the suckers will stop growing as often from the base and the tree will force its growth energies to the top most points of the tree. I find it amazing, and if you have ever seen really mature Crepe Myrtles, they require little care or pruning, they have learned, or been trained, how to properly grow.
Isn't that just how it is for us? For our kids? God reveals an area in our lives that appears healthy, nothing sinful, even potentially there is fruit there. But God knows that with some gentle pruning, which is defined as "cutting off or removing either dead or living parts or branches of a plant to improve shape or growth", He can make us more useful for His work, increasing our fruitfulness. I know that in my life I have had areas (whether interests, hobbies, friendships, motivations, even ministries) that the Lord has chosen to remove from me. During those times I have wondered, "what was bad about that?" And though it was not necessarily something bad, it was the removal of that something, even a "good" something, which allowed for the Lord to improve my overall shape or growth.
Like the Crepe Myrtle, I have noticed that there are seasons when the Lord is intensely watchful in an area, carefully snipping off any "suckers" of the old habit, interest, or way of thinking or behaving. Then, as I mature in an area, I stumble back into old habits less, new and healthier growth having been trained and I may enter a season where less intense pruning is necessary.
I need to remember this with my children... they are but young, tender shoots, requiring gentle, yet watchful pruning. Sadly, I am all too often not as gentle or watchful as I ought to be. I am thankful for spring's return, and for the lessons God is bringing to mind as I work to cultivate this plot of land He has blessed us with, with these tender shoots He has entrusted to us.
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