growing pains

you know the saying "be careful what you ask for, you just might get it"?  yeah, well, i think it goes for praying too.  this past summer, as i looked ahead to my 41st birthday, i prayed that God would grow me.  that he would prune the branches of my life and weed out the wrong.  that i would bear beautiful blossoms of grace and patience and discipline, all honoring and giving glory to HIM! the Master Gardener!  i guess i was thinking that i would simply pray that prayer, and go to bed, and wake up all weeded and pruned and graceful and patient and disciplined and, well, grown.  uh huh.  nope. doesn't happen that way.  turns out, cutting and trimming hurt!  God does not magically change us in our sleep.  he knows that we must feel those growing pains, experience them, so we can grow.  no growth takes place without  some pruning.  and like i said, it doesn't always feel good.  when sin is brought to the surface and we are given the choice to surrender and grow, it's not always as easy as we thought it would be.  but i truly believe that the cutting away of sin in our lives, and our surrender in and to the process, brings great growth!! our Father requires whole-hearted obedience and surrender.  if that means enduring some growing pains along the way, well, i think the Master Gardener knows what's best.  incidentally, i managed to make it through my birthday, quite happily, and have indeed continued to experience the growing pains that accompany change.  and that makes me glad.  because i know that were i not feeling them, i wouldn't be growing.
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" Psalm 30:5