This is the third blog about the three prayers God asked me to pray. The first was to be humble. The second was to invite His discipline. The third thing God asked me to do was to accept His pruning. I didn't know much about pruning but I knew I didn't like prunes! And I was pretty sure that pruning meant cutting and cutting meant pain. I could guess that the things that would get cut were probably things I liked but Jesus didn't. In short, I wasn't looking forward to the process. I can't stress how much I did not want to pray these prayers!

It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made. I make this prayer a daily discipline and I don't dread it any more. The pruning is about letting go of things that aren't helpful. In fact some are downright hurtful to me or others. I would be less than truthful if I made it sound easy in any way because it wasn't. 

I've been working off a "To Do" list for years and feel lost without one. But lately God seems more interested in the "Stop Doing" list. He's asked me to prune away. I've let some things go that I love doing. Often the hardest choices are not between good and bad but between better and best. I haven't got this down yet but some of the things I'm learning are: I'm complete in Christ, busy isn't better, approval is over-rated, abiding is better than accomplishment, you have to be quiet to hear the whisper of God, striving is a guarantee trouble is coming, and what God doesn't want for me isn't good for me no matter how good it is or how much I like it. I've got a long way to go but at least I'm embracing the process.