Will Your Talents Be Pruned? Stay Tuned.

There are 140 days until I arrive at one year of blog entries.  Someone asked me what I will do after I arrive at the "One Year" mark.  I'm not sure what I will do.  I might continue to write or my husband might want me to quit taking approximately an hour each night to write and spend the time with him instead.  For now I will continue to write and to be inspired each day by the day set before me.  Thadd often feels frustrated when he arrives from work and I am yet to write my blog.  The day is not quite done till nine or so at night and so much can happen up until that point I don't want to rob myself of the opportunity to share a larger picture of the day.  Sometimes you read a funny account and sometimes a moving Bible story, but each day is as unique as each one of us.

When I look around whether I am at the grocery store or the gas station each individual has a story.  Each story is different and each person is unique and special.  Very early in my life my mother found what made me extra special and was able to guide it and hone it to near perfection.  Of course, the perfection was lost when you added the element of free will.  Having been born a natural kinesthetic person with a great sense of direction and a natural movement ability could have played out differently. i could've actually used my talent and focused on being disciplined and the best at my craft.   Instead I wasted time.  My time and the time of my teachers and mentors.  Just because you are good at something does not mean you will possess the gift forever if you abuse it.

John 15:2

New International Version (NIV)

² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful.

Imagine my surprise when I was reminded of this verse in the Bible.  Dang it!!  Just when I was happily moving through life thinking dance was my whole life and it would never change.  It got pruned.  Twenty eight years of dance almost daily was completely removed from my life.  At this point I am seven+ years without dance in my daily life.  Imagine the identity crisis you face when you are no longer what you were for nearly three decades and you look quite different than you did when you were dancing.  Life changes.  We get pruned.  I guess dance was in need of some pruning and so it was nearly cut off and altogether removed from my life.  As a teenager I dreamed of one day having a day without dance, but as an adult the idea of a simple ballet class is therapeutic.  Many of us have faced this same pruning in the form of a lost talent, a lost marriage, or even a loss of human life of a parent, friend, or even mentor.  I guess what I'd like to share is that you would think about the talents God placed in your life and use them.  Be fruitful in the place God has blessed you.  More than anyone tonight, I think I needed to hear this lesson most of all.  Bloom where God has you.

For those of you who know me well, I never encounter a place I don't find the silver lining, yet I still am very hard on my own self.  The thing I want you and me to hear is this:  Bloom where you are planted.  Bear fruit.  Invest in your present situation and know that God has you here for a perfect purpose in His perfect plan.  I am ever thankful for the grace God has given me(Day 83).  I know I don't deserve it and yet he bestows grace and mercy on me daily.  Will you choose to bear fruit or will your talents be completely removed from your life?  You choose.  Goodnight Friends.