Birthdays often bring me to a point where I begin to reflect on life and how I’ve lived my life over the years. My son is about to turn 14-years-old, and it is a big deal to this mama who really has no idea where the time has gone and how her sweet little boy has grown into a very tall (and still sweet, kind, and caring) young man. It honestly just breaks my heart, watching my children grow up so fast.
It really makes me stop in my tracks and ask myself what I am allowing into my life, mind, and heart.
What am I allowing into my life that is literally robbing me of my JOY and my time?
How can I make the most of every moment of every day?
What can I do to bottle up this precious time in my life?
The more I think about all of these questions, it seems like life continues to flow faster and faster, and it makes me think about my word for the year.
My word of the year is: Fruitfulness
When God spoke this word over my heart, I was actually really excited. I thought to myself, “Finally.” I guess you can say life has been a difficult battle, and I have not felt much fruitfulness from the life that I had been living or the trials I have been experiencing. FINALLY, SO I thought all the seeds I had planted will sprout up and produce a harvest.
It’s amazing how fast I forgot all the work that goes into bearing fruit and producing a harvest. I forgot about the pruning, the weeding, and the tears it requires to water the new seeds. I forgot the sacrifices it would take and the faith I would need to have in God to receive the promise He has for me this year. I forgot about the change and how a fruitful life will never look like the old life.
But 1 month into the new year and my life is nothing like it was last year, and that’s a good thing.
Sometimes it is not easy to spot the weeds that we have allowed to sprout up in the garden of our hearts. God has definitely been pruning out those weeds and where He draws out the weeds there seems to be a void that truly only He can fill. Even though the weed left a void where it was, it was just a weed. Weeds never take deep root and they never bear fruit. It’s easy to spot a weed. It’s not easy to spot a fruitless tree from a distance.
I am truly learning that when God gives you a word like “fruitfulness” for your word of the year it’s not even about the fruit – the fruit is just what will be produced from all the hard work that goes into creating a tree that will even produce the fruit. As the seasons change the weather changes with it and I am finding myself learning how to live through those storms continually abiding in Him; and it seems like the good gardener that God is, He is truly preparing my life to be more fruitful no matter how painful it is.
We have a tree in our front yard called a tulip tree and for many years I waited for that tree to finally produce flowers. A few years back a flower finally appeared, and I was so excited! Now every year more and more flowers appear. But now it’s getting to the point where that tree is needing to be pruned and I am so tempted to just go out there with a chainsaw and start cutting down branches. But my husband keeps saying if you don’t trim the tree the right way then you can actually kill the tree! Well, that has actually made me scared to even go to the tree and cut anything down, so I have just let it grow the way it is and I think it’s only getting worse.
Is it weird that I love this little tree in my front yard? We built this house almost 15 years ago and we’ve had that tree since it was a “baby tree.” It was our first house, and our first tree! I am very much attached to this tree; I have even thought about bringing the tree with us when we move. So considering how attached I am to this tree you can imagine I don’t want to do anything that could potentially harm that tree. However, I have learned that taking the “hands off” approach isn’t necessarily the best way to deal with a problem, especially when it’s comes to the fact that this tree needs some pruning in it’s near future.
What’s really exciting and scary about having your word of the year being fruitfulness is that it means God is going to be “hands on” with your life. I will need to abide in Him all the time, and the pruning will take place because it needs to; however, even though it might feel like the pruning is going to kill me, I know that God knows what He is doing.
I hope you will join me this year as I write about what it means to live a fruitful life. You can subscribe to my blog below so you can stay updated on this journey. Do you have a word of the year? If so, I would love to hear about it in the comments below!
Heather, it sounds like God has some beautiful work He’s already doing in you as you grow in fruitfulness. 🙂 That pruning and watering and learning to soak in the sun (Son) is WORK, but it produces fruit, right? 🙂
My oldest boy is about to turn 15 this year, and it has me a bit in shock. I can hardly believe he’s that old. They are blessings though, aren’t they?
I’m stopping by from Jennifer Dukes Lee’s place. It’s nice to “meet” you.
It’s amazing how children make you so much more aware of time passing. My niece is about to turn 4 in April and it’s making me kind of sad. She gets more and more fun with each year that goes by, but it’s suddenly starting to feel like it’s going by too fast.
You picked a great word to focus on for the year. I started last December with trying to remove from my life things that I don’t really love or find really useful. I feel like my life was so full of mediocre things that I wasn’t really enjoying. So I’m working on clearing it all out so I can focus more on things that really matter.
You are so right there are so many things that get in the way and bring us down not allowing us to live up to our full potential.
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
My youngest son is waiting for the date to test for his driver’s license, and this feels like such a momentous mile stone to me. You’re wise to do your heart searching and questioning in conjunction with life events. I think that’s the best part of the “celebration,” even if it can be sobering at times.
This is the exact encouragement I need at this point in my life. I, too, had forgotten how much work it takes to cultivate a bountiful harvest. Thanks so much for the profound nudge that I needed. Congrats, you’re featured this week at the This Is How We Roll Link Party.