pruning

Friday May 11^th, John 15: ¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. I need to lose 40 pounds.  Step one is to admit that I am overweight.  There are other things about myself that would be best if they were changed also, I will not mention them here.  We are always in the process of pruning, cutting this back, encouraging growth here, discouraging this from taking over our self.  We get that.  All too often when we read these texts however we think the pruning is cutting out the other person, rather than the God guided refining of the self.  Perhaps what we most need pruned is our desire to prune the other.  Sometimes the pruning is in the form of excluding the other.  Other times it is trying to be in charge of what the other must do.  Either way, it is about the other.  God calls us to go under the pruning hook of the spirit until we are truly able to love one another.