Pruning

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By Chase age 13
Spring brings, along with many other things, the time to prune everything. My
favorite plants to prune are the grapes.

A few days ago, Mom and I pruned all of them together. We cut off most of the
newer growth and any vines that aren't growing the direction we want them to.
Sometimes it feels like you are cutting off the whole plant!

Some of the vines are so long and tangled that we have to cut them into three or
four sections just to get them away from the fence and other vine. The vines
might be really long, others might be tiny. Some were even 16 feet!

As we were pruning, Mom and I thought of an analogy with the grapes. As you
prune a plant, it seems like you are hurting it. We have to cut off so much,
sometimes it even looks like we have killed it.
This is kind of like our lives. We are tested, hurt, and sometimes it feels like we
are going to die. But in the process, all of the excess stuff of our lives and of
ourselves, stuff that we wouldn't have with us in Heaven, is taken off.

Some of these things might be really big, though others might be so small we
didn't even realize it was a problem. As we go through this, we are turned into a
completely different person so that we can grow the good fruit in place of the
corrupted fruit like it talks about in the scriptures.

Sometimes it can be hard and painful to have all of that stuff taken off, but that
pain is the only way we can become Christ-like and return to live with Him. And
when we feel that pain, we can always turn to Jesus Christ. Because of what He
did in Gethsemane, He knows exactly what we are going through.

“Gethsemane,” by Adam Abram
One of the reasons we prune plants is because most plants provide better fruit
when they are stressed. It even helps tomato plants fruit better if you beat them
with a stick!

There are so many symbols that we can learn from in nature, so many lessons
and analogies to help us to better understand God, the commandments He
gives, and the trials He allows.

I love being able to see all these lessons around me every day. It's one of the
many blessings I have because I live here.

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