Apples Galore: Discerning Day-to-Day Fruit

It has been an apple-licious month in our house! We have two apple trees in the backyard exploding with produce. Apples have consumed much of my free time. If I am not researching recipes, I am chopping/coring apples for crisps, muffins, cider, and even apple butter. My husband's parents have been busy making applesauce, and we have been giving apples away by the bucketload. There are apples galore!

Finding ways to use the apples has been lots of fun. But due to the amount, it has been impossible to find a use for every single apple. We have experienced an overabundant year and I'm starting to get appled-out! Our larger tree bore an enormous amount of apples, and a few of the branches broke under the weight. It produced much fruit, benefiting me, but losing part of itself. 

The snapped branch on our overabundant apple tree.

I can’t be the only one to feel like the overabundant tree. I am unafraid to say ‘yes’ until I begin breaking under the weight and pressure of my obligatory fruit. The fruit may be good… but is it good for me? 

I am not referring to the fruit of an overabundant life of ministry. In fact, with my two young daughters under my care, I humbly accept my evangelical limitations during this current season of life. I am talking about the day-to-day fruit that slowly bends the branch one ‘yes’ at a time. 

If I am being completely transparent, it is the self-inflicted obligatory fruit that becomes the heaviest. The weighing fruit can be as simple as arranging one too many playdates in a week or trying to squeeze in time to bake muffins for a potluck instead of picking some up at the grocery store. It can be saying ‘yes’ to a perfectly clean house or hosting a garage sale next month when it would be easier to donate the items instead. It can be making yet another crockpot of apple cider when we already have plenty in the freezer or saying ‘yes’ to learning a new song for a funeral instead of singing the hymn I am already comfortable with. 

The fruit may be good...but is it good for me?

Jesus says to us in John 15:1-2, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." The Lord is our Master Gardener. He knows which branches need to be trimmed in order to protect us from unnecessary burnout. The challenge lies in releasing the pruning tools and surrendering the entire harvest to Him.

Until next time, your sister in Christ,

Abby

P.S. Here is an adorable photo of my baby enjoying an apple from our tree! One of her first words was 'apple' making her a true apple advocate!