On Fruit

A few months ago, when I documented a day in my life for Emily's blog, I realized that I was missing something major in my daily routine: I was missing time with God. Now, I understand that this sounds kind of lame and/or cliche, but really when I think of the times in my life that I was most fruitful, most productive, and most happy, they have all been times where I have been snuggled close to the Father - reading my bible or spending time in prayer. That's true whether I was in a season of trouble or a season of peace. It's true in the season when I was newly married (peace), and it's true when I was in the season after the miscarriage (trouble).

And right now I'm sort of at a stagnated place, so I decided to give myself a kickstart by following the She Reads Truth plans again - but this time I'm going to focus on just the word of God, instead of getting distracted by the words of people.

This week, She Reads Truth is featuring a quick 5 day study. Since yesterday was chock-full of napping and cleaning and fireworks-ing, I started today. And I feel better and more refreshed already.

The post today was on John 15:1-11 and the verse that really stuck out to me was this:

"You have already been pruned and purified".

I find that it's so easy for me to fall into this way of thinking where I see myself as on some journey to be pruned, on some journey to be purified, never really reaching the goal of being just like Jesus and always falling short. I find myself getting distracted, trying to balance work and family, trying to do one thing really well and instead doing a thousand things kind of half-heartedly.

But I've already been pruned and purified. You know what kind of freedom that offers? I don't need to do anything but what I'm doing in that moment. No striving, no reaching, just doing and living. Doing one thing at a time, really well, and not spending my energy on getting to perfection.

And I think that'll bear some fruit.