Thankful --- #5!

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving!!!! It's hard to believe it's almost here. I might add, equally as important to me is celebrating the birth of my Savior at Christmas, but the sights, smells and sounds of Fall over excite me! It feels like the atmosphere changes, people seem to be more thankful and appreciative, they speak much kinder and are less negative. I don't know, maybe I'm giving too much credit to mankind and really it's just the weather change here in Florida provoking all this happiness. Regardless, I love the fall for all of the above mentioned reasons and in addition I get to spend time with family and friends, sharing, playing, having fun and creating lasting memories. No schedules, no cell phones......lots of uninterrupted time, just being together!

If you spend time at my dinner table on Thanksgiving Day, you will participate in a family tradition we call: "This year I am Thankful for..." Each guest at the table is given a chance to express the top three things they are most thankful for, specifically occurring within the year. It's amazing to note that rarely are the things my family and guests mention "monetary items" as you may consider might be, especially when children are seated at the table. I believe Solomon was accurate when he warned, "money and monetary things bring only temporary pleasures"! It's in fact those things felt with the heart that bring the most joy to our lives despite what age we may be.

I wanted to get a jump start on my family and guests, so I am taking the opportunity to list my Top Five Things I am Thankful For....on my blog.  It's a little different this year, so I plan on expounding on these bullets in future blogs for the month of November. So check back often and let me know what you think.

This year I am very Thankful for:

5.  God's Pruning

4.  Unanswered prayers

3.  Direction & Discernment

2.  Protection

1.  My Husband & Children

#5 - God's Pruning -- The bible says in John 15:2 "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away and everyone that does bear fruit He prunes it, that it will bring forth more fruit." Notice John said God does the pruning. It's a blessing to know that I don't have to do the pruning myself. God is much better at recognizing a decaying branch or a rotted root.

Those of you who do any type of gardening know you can cut just about any bush back and within a few months (especially here in Florida) it will re-growth itself and produce more fruit or flowers.  We have several "bird of paradise" palm trees in our yard and one of the palms started decaying. My husband and I were debating whether to cut it back or dig it up because they are very expensive. He was  hesitant to let me do anything, but I knew that pruning it would get rid of the decay and the palm would eventually burst new growth again. So when he wasn't looking I pruned that thing all the way to the ground. (haa!) At first it looked like the poor palm would never make it back, but within a few months we began to see new growth and today it stands taller and more beautiful then it did before I got a hold of it and butchered it.

Like I butchered the palm tree, God definitely did some "pruning" in my life and in the lives of my family this year. Sometimes we don't recognize the "rotting decay" that has the potential to wreck havoc in our lives, until the damage is already done. Yet God in His omniscience is able to see in advance what has the potential to hurt us, kill us and ultimately destroy us and He comes in and prunes that branch away. It may hurt at first, but after we are able to recognize all the decay and rot buried deep in that branch, we are thankful He did protect us.

Friend if you are in a pruning process and God is removing materials, people, positions, titles, mindsets, etc from your life and you are having trouble figuring out why ------ TRUST HIM!!!!

You may not understand it now but you can be confident it's Him! He knows exactly what He is doing.

THANK YOU LORD,
for pruning our lives. You love me enough....

Blessings, Polly