The Garden That Wouldn’t Grow

Claire Black: Welcome back to True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. I’m Claire Black. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us, one drive at a time. Buckle up! You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus.

True Girl, have you ever gone through a time when it seemed like NOTHING was going right?

Your best friend is mad at you. You didn’t make the team. You studied really hard and still got a bad grade. Then you and your mom go through a season where you have a hard time communicating. It’s just one thing after another!

And maybe you’ve even wondered, God, why are You letting all of this happen?

Well, Jesus talked about something called pruning—when a gardener cuts back a healthy plant so it can grow even stronger.

And this past summer, Dannah Gresh learned a lesson about pruning in a very real way when her garden just would . . . not . . . grow.

What happened next taught her something about what God might be doing when life feels hard. So, let’s head to the Gresh farm for another “Lesson from the Barnyard!”

Suzy Weibel: Good Day, Dannah Gresh! Mind if I walk Sookie on the farm?

Dannah Gresh: Absolutely . . . and perfect timing. I could use a break from ripping out my garden for the winter. I’ll walk with you.

Suzy: Whoa, Dannah! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a potted flower that BIG!

Dannah: I know! That’s my dragon’s wing begonia. And you should have seen my zinnias—two-and-a-half feet tall this year . . . a bumper crop!

Suzy: Wow!

Dannah: And look over there. My morning glory grew all the way to the top of the flagpole. Farmer Bob’s gonna have to help me pull those vines down.

Suzy: And your marigolds are still blooming!

Dannah: Yellow and orange—to complement my pumpkins. Suzy, I’ve picked twenty pumpkins so far . . . and counting!

Suzy: Okay. Your garden clearly loved you this year.

Dannah: Well, actually, that’s the strange part.

Suzy: How so?

Dannah: Nothing grew well in Pennsylvania this year. My mom kept telling me how nothing in her garden would grow. In fact, I visited Harner 

Farm for apples last week . . . none! They said the late spring freeze snapped the buds on both the peaches and the apples. 

Suzy: And yet . . .

Dannah: Here’s the deal. I was determined for my farm to look beautiful for an event we hosted in August. I invited all the friends who give money to support True Girl here to celebrate all that God’s done through their generosity. 

Well, in July, it looked like the farm was going to look pretty sad. Nothing was blooming or growing. The late freeze caused me to plant late and I guess they didn’t like the heat. And the rain was really weird this year, too—nothing at all, or it was raining cats and dogs.

This garden looked well . . . the flowers were blooming, but I just knew they could look even more beautiful.

Suzy: So what happened?

Dannah: I cut it all down.

Suzy: Your garden was blooming, but you wanted it to bloom more . . . so you cut it down?!

Dannah: Yep. Took my clippers and just started chopping.

Suzy: Seems like the opposite of what you wanted. What did it look like then?

Dannah: Oh, even worse. The flowers were just green stubs. But I knew about pruning.

Suzy: Ah, now you’re getting to a word I know something about.

Dannah: Pruning?

Suzy: Yep. When a gardener prunes a plant, she cuts away parts of it so the plant can put its energy into healthy new growth.

Dannah: Exactly. I didn’t know you were into gardening?

Suzy: I’m not. I’m into my Bible. You know, Dannah, Jesus talked about pruning.

Dannah: I do know that!

Suzy: It’s in John 15. Jesus tells His followers that He is the vine and God the Father is the gardener. And then He says this about the branches that belong to Him in verse 2:

He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.

Dannah: Notice, he prunes the branches that are, in fact, already growing fruit.

Suzy: Exactly. Pruning isn’t punishment. The gardener is caring for the branch because he wants it to be even more fruitful. Sometimes God’s work in our lives can feel a little like that.

Maybe something you really wanted doesn’t happen: like you don’t make the team. Maybe you have to give something up, like leaving a school that you loved to move to a new city for your dad’s career.
Maybe you’re studying as hard as you can, but just can’t get math figured out. And you might think, God, why is life so hard? I don’t like this!

Dannah: It’s like God is taking his pruning shears and clip, clip, clip!

Suzy: And you’re like, ouch, ouch, ouch! Stop it! Please!

Dannah: If I’m honest, I just think I came out of a time like that. Farmer Bob got sick for a long time. True Girl got robbed. I can’t even believe that happened. And one of my best friendships just got really difficult. Everywhere I looked things were hard.

Suzy: It felt like God had his pruning shears out?

Dannah: Yeah, Suze. It really did. 

Suzy: Well, how did your garden grow?

Dannah: My garden?

Suzy: The one in your heart.

Dannah: Hmmm, well, I think God showed me some things in there, weeds maybe, that didn’t belong. Things like impatience, unkindness.

Suzy: Those aren’t words I’d use to describe you.

Dannah: But sometimes what’s inside us is what needs to be cut back!

Suzy: True enough!

Dannah: I didn’t like the hard things God asked me to face, but I do like what’s growing in my heart as a result.

Suzy: No one likes pruning. But God prunes the people He loves—not to hurt them, but to help them become more fruitful.

When God does prune us, we can trust the Gardener because He loves us and knows what will help us grow.

Dannah: I’m thankful he cut me back. I do feel like I’m growing. Speaking of which, I need to get back to the garden. 

Suzy: Come on, Sookie. Let’s get the gardener back to her work.

Dannah, sounds like you’ve got a growing list of things to do.

Dannah: Did you just make a garden joke?

Suzy: Oh, there’s more where that came from: I’d help, but I really need to leaf.

Dannah: Har. Har.

Suzy: Don’t worry, I’ll still be rooting for you!

Claire: True Girl, maybe you’re in a season right now when life feels a little bit like Dannah’s garden after she took those clippers to it.

Something you wanted didn’t happen. Life has changed. Friendship just feels hard.

You might not know what God is doing, and you can’t always know if a hard thing is God pruning you. But . . . you can trust Him.

Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.”

You don’t have to understand everything God is doing to trust the One who loves you.

Well, the True Girl Tour is on the road right now. Dannah is appearing at every event in our final leg of the Crazy Hair Tour. You’ll learn how to stand out and stand up for Jesus.

Get tickets to any of the ten tour stops at MyTrueGirl.com. And in every city, she’s also offering a special lunch-and-learn workshop for moms, titled “Raising Pure Kids.” She’ll provide biblical encouragement for moms and, of course, lunch!

And if you can’t come to us, we can bring some True Girl discipleship right to your door! The True Girl Box shipping this month is the Pajama Party Box, filled with tools to help you make wise choices about friendship. Dannah even wrote a whole Pajama Party book with recipes, games, and biblical advice about choosing good friends.

You can plan a pajama party with your friends—or make it a special night with just you and your mom—and talk together about what wise friendship looks like. Find out about all of that at MyTrueGirl.com.

And True Girl, whatever God is growing in you right now—even if you don’t understand it yet—keep trusting the Gardener.

The True Girl podcast is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.