Toiling, Pruning and Picking

Trav and I had a great Mother's day down in Rancho with our Nan. We spent a lot of our time working in the backyard, gardening, planting tomatoes, picking citrus fruits and pruning the peach tree. God never ceases to amaze me with His creation and how beautifully it illustrates so much about His character and relationship with us.

My Nan always plants tomatoes around this time each year. She bought seven little plants and was waiting to plant them until I came up. Trav was in charge of the weeding and placing the little guys in each of the wholes Nan had dug. I'm fairly positive this was his first time in any garden :) Nan put me in charge of patting down the soil and then digging a little mote around each one to keep the water around the roots. As my Nan was watering the plants, my brother kept saying, "I think that's enough, I think that's enough!" As if he knows anything about watering plants...but the crazy thing is that the plants really need a lot of water to grow. This is their life source; without it they grow dry and weary and eventually fade away. This is how much we need our source of life, JESUS, everyday! And it's so evident that we think we're doing fine and we don't need more, but we can NEVER have enough of Him! Ah, He is so good to overflow our cup and let His living water flow through us. "And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Isaiah 58:11

Now, the pruning, OMIGOSH did He show me so much about the importance of pruning. My Nan has a little tiny peach tree but it seriously must have thousands of little green peaches growing. Now, if we simply left it like that and allowed it to do it's own thing they would never be able to grow or produce any fruit at all. JUST LIKE US! We need pruning in order to be able to bear good fruit for the kingdom. We're completely incapable with out God teaching us lessons and bearing up through hard times. Even more, I realized how difficult it is for him to prune us! Pruning the tree was anything but easy for me guys, I was having such a hard time picking off the little green peaches and just throwing them away. I didn't really want to at all, but my Nan kept saying we had to for the sake of the peaches. This is such a picture of His heart for us, He doesn't want us to suffer or struggle but it has to be done for the sake of bigger and better things to come! It's because of His deep deep love for us that He does it. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit." John 15:2


My Nan has a courtyard with around ten or so rose bushes that are beginning to bloom. The colors we're just radiant! Now really, who can look at these and not stand in awe at how truly beautiful God's creation is.

And for the citrus fruits. Trav was needed for reaching the highest of oranges and he helped gather some lemons. He was so helpful today :)

Hope you had a blessed Mother's Day!
<3 Dani