Apples.

 "Is there any hope?"

"Maybe, if you take drastic measures."

"That drastic?

Will it survive?"

"It may not,

but if you don't, it will be worthless."

Pruning the unkempt apple trees on our farm

when we bought it seven years ago

almost seemed like a lost cause.

The trees were smothered in a mess of undergrowth,

wild,
and badly shaped.

Is an apple tree supposed to look like a mass of trees bunched together?

Our friend told us to make a major cut of one of the limbs
of the Granny Smith apple tree.

It was a big one

and he said it might not survive,

but if we ever wanted to try to get apples from it,

this cut would be the best attempt.

We've kept at it each year,

making more cuts,

trimming out waterspouts that grew in.

Most times,

I don't feel like I know what I am doing;

but I keep trying,

the hopes and dreams of apples spurring me on.

As I cut I am reminded of people.

So often I hold frustrations against people;

I grumble at my husband when he gets tired and grumpy;

I sour at the kids lack of brain power to remember to pick up,

I think that people can't change.

But to think that

is to lose hope for myself as well.

I need changes, too.

We all change, and to hold somebody to a mistake,

to reject forgiveness and hold out that there is no hope,

is to deny that God does pruning work.

I see it in our fruit trees.

I see it in my kids.

 Violet is highly competitive.

We've dealt with her tears after lost games of Memory,

Crazy 8's,

Old Maid,

Chutes and Ladders.

We've explained, encouraged, corrected, taught,

but some things take time, life's lessons, prayer.

Sometimes as a parent,

it's hard not to wonder if they'll ever get things.

This past Saturday our church had a "Field Day" for the kids.

Violet didn't win any of the games.

But I could see that,

amazingly,

it didn't seem to bother her.

She was having fun.

And when she won the ribbon for good sportsmanship,

I hid behind my camera,

so nobody would see my misty eyes.

She is learning.

 It's been seven years of pruning.

Years where we got 2 apples,

then 5,

then 10,

then 12 apples.

Always, only a few;

always, they seemed to rot on the tree before they fell down.

 Then this year,

the pruning and care...

have started to pay off.

Harvest has begun.

 There is hope.

 Pruning can save an unfruitful tree,

and the rewards are worth it.

The LORD is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger,

plenteous in mercy.

He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins;

nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as heaven is high above the earth,

so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

As far as the east is from the west,

so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Like as a father pitieth his children,

so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

For he knoweth our frame;

he remembereth that we are dust."

Psalm 103:8-14

Linking up to: