My hedges were huge. They were overtaking my house…well maybe not my house, but they were definitely creeping onto my porch and starting to block my windows. All I’ve wanted to do for months now is take a truck (that I don’t have), tie a chain (that I don’t have) around them all, rip them out and start over with tiny, little bushes.
Instead I found the hedge trimmer that my husband and I bust out once a year. The hedge trimmer was a gift from my mom my first birthday (or Christmas…or Mother’s Day) as a single mother. I selfishly thought, come on I have a two year old, a newborn, no one to buy me a present and you get me a hedge trimmer? I’m going to have to call a babysitter to even be able to trim my hedges. (PS Mom I do love my hedge trimmer so thank you again.)
Ha! I just remembered the time I moved a recliner out of that house (my first ever hedge property) to the curb by myself. People driving by probably thought I was a lunatic as they watched me roll and scoot that thing out out my door, down my three steps on the porch, and out across my front lawn. That thing was so awkwardly shaped.
Oh and the time I took Hads to school (this morning) in sweatpants (the generic $5 pair from Wal-Mart that are tight around the ankle), my husband’s shoes that had an encounter with our enormous 4 month old Great Pyrenees puppy and is missing a shoe string, tall, fuzzy Christmas socks (note…of course I had my sweatpants at calf-height so the fuzzy Christmas socks were shouting “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas…good morning everyone” (your welcome…I know you wanted that song stuck in your head)), hair was 10 minutes post pillow talk (as in my hair with my pillow…not as in my pillow talk with Kyle…which half the time consists of me asking him trivia questions and being blown away by his ability to answer questions about French cities, the industrial revolution, and all the things that happened before 1949), hadn’t brushed my teeth, and of course didn’t put on a bra…because everyone knows when you take your kid to school looking like this it’s okay not to put on a bra because it is the cardinal rule not to exit the vehicle so no one should see you bra-less as you say to your kid… “love you bye, don’t get hit by a car” as they jump and run across the street. But of course, being who I am, I jump out give the kid a hug because I had probably just yelled at her for lallygagging in front of the TV when I’d told her to brush her teeth 32 times already and I had to make sure her last memory of me sending her to school that morning was not me being a grouchy-pants, and I am reminded of what I am wearing (and not wearing) as I fling my arm up to wave at some parent crossing the road coming toward me. I felt like Lorelai on Rory’s first day at Chilton.
What?
I’m supposed to be talking about my hedges.
Hedges…
So I preformed quite the hack job on my hedges over the past two days while Kyle was working. Have I cleaned up the mess from hedging? Of course not…you are beginning to realize my character, aren’t you? If you drive past my house please don’t judge me, I will pick it up as soon as I get the feeling back in my arms.
Anyway, so I scrapped the rip-them-out-of-the-ground idea when I remembered we don’t have a truck and decided to use my good ole faithful hedge trimmer to tame the wild beasts. After an hour of trimming I realized there are four separate plants on the front side of my house. They had always grown together and me being me just assumed it was one big plant. Note…I’m not good with plants so don’t judge my lack of knowledge. (Apparently I don’t want to be judged today or something.)
So I trimmed until my ears could no longer handle the ringing from the noise and I busted out the hedge clippers. Note to self…always ask someone stronger than you to clip the hefty branches…or better yet, don’t let your hedges get so stinking huge that the stems turn into huge, tree-size branches.
Some of these little guys were easy. One clean swoop with the trimmer or the clippers and some of the ugly was gone. Some of these were a little more hefty and took more effort. Some were so big I thought…let’s leave that one for the blue eyed man or a chainsaw.
At this point I have no idea if this post will hold any substance at all, so in an effort to regain the purpose of any of this…let’s move on to the Jesus part.
As I was trimming, I was simply reminded of how God prunes us. Some things are easy to give up. Some things take a bit of work to hand over. Some things have lingered around for so long that they have developed some solid roots in our lives and have become quite substantial in effecting so much of what we do.
I’ve done this before…ya know (like I said) once a year…and it never fails that although the hedges may look pretty crappy for a while because I’ve taken them down to ugly branches without any vegetation, they always come back nice and full of life and I’m sure they will try to overtake my house again sometime next year.
When God begins to strip things out of our lives, it’s normally not fun. It hurts to give it up. The lies, the gossip, the friends that are pulling you in a no bueno direction, the lack of trust, the fear, the comparison, the anxiety, the selfishness, the impatience, the corrupt talk, the lack of compassion, the judgement, the _____________, but abide in Him. Trust that He knows what needs to be stripped away and what must remain. Abide in Him.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” (John 15:1-6)
Bye friends! 🙂