In the sections of Come, Follow Me this week I enjoyed the symbol of pruning in the vineyard.
COVID-19 seems to have shown us that there are a lot of things that can be reduced out of our lives. God says there will be a time where he prunes the vineyard one last time before Christ’s return.
Pruning may hurt the tree a little for a time, but allows it to focus instead on what is most important, the base of the tree. In last week’s study, the family study section encouraged studiers to consider what the trunk of the tree resembled. If it is considered Christ like the manual suggests, I find the parallel very meaningful that removing extraneous branches gives me time to focsu back on Him.
Perhaps a fireside isn’t as necessary as my daily repentance. Maybe my time can be better spent working on family history, rather than spending it at Institute. It’s like a good, better, best thing where God’s helping remove the good in favor of the better.
It can go both ways however, by removing some of those good branches (even if only temporarily at times) like church in a building with my ward it hurts me if I don’t refocus back on the base of the tree. It can be positive if it helps me redouble my attention to trying to be like the Savior though.
