Time to Trim the Fat

It's that time of year again. The buds are forming on the ends of the trees, buds are showing now after the dead of winter. While the rains in the northeast are dreary and discouraging the beauty that it will bring each day the sun shines, brings excitement and joy as we anticipate the break of summer. Around my house, we are blessed with some beautiful red flowers from the quinces that are around our walkway, but they did not look that way in November of last year.  

All of this beauty was enabled by some critical pruning that was done at the end of last year. Trimming back the dying or overgrown branches, cutting out the weeds, and removing any excess dead leaves that may have fallen. Nature requires a trim to open up the beauty that is lying in wait for a time to come.

This is an area in ourselves that is often overlooked. As the days and years go by we take on new things. New habits, new tasks, and new things, but how often do we clean up the old ways or old things that have burdened us to bring on these new areas?

Breaking habits and building new habits are great, but we have to get rid of the old things to allow those new things to grow. In our Christian faith, Christ taught this very example as it relates to us in John 15:1 

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

See we are taught to purge or cut off those things that are hindering us. Another verse rings true to this principle in Hebrews 12:1 

...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

See you cannot run your best or fullest when you are carrying extra weights. The goal is to lighten our load. As you take these verses together, where has excess crept into your life and where can you shave or trim off some of those to free you up to be stronger and even more glorious?

Some areas to look to trim:

1. Our finances, where has our spending grown with our income too much?

2. In our lives, where have we taken on too much that we cannot focus our attention on the things that we need to?

3. Our work is similar to the above, is something in our work that needs our attention more, and is it time to let go of some of those things?

4. Our health, has our snacking, or something else gotten in the way of our ability to take the best care of ourselves?

Thanks to the 3-Minute Reset for inspiring this post. If you listen to podcasts, this one is fantastic, takes just 3 minutes to listen to each day, and helps to focus your mind in the right way.

3-Minute Reset on Apple Podcasts Or Look it up on the player of your choice