Day 4 Crown Reduction

How dreadful it is that because of our wills we can never love anything without messing it around! We couldn’t even love a tree, a stone even; for sooner or later we should be pruning the tree or chipping a bit off the stone. — Sylvia Townsend Warner

Are you familiar with Crown Reduction? It is the type of pruning performed to preserve the main limb and promotes the tree’s health by decreasing the risk of decay. When performed correctly, crown reduction results in an overall reduction of tree height and also lifts a dead weight from the tree.

Crown reduction gives better results when performed on younger trees that are in the growing phase. For mature trees it is recommended to remove the entire limb rather than removing the dead part of it. As you can see from the above photo our tree did not require this type of pruning. But it does apply to us for the reduction of risking decay of the Holy Spirit’s temple and to promote our spiritual health.

Spiritual Crown reduction gives better results when walking in obedience with the commandments of God. When His word is handled correctly, our height increases putting us closer to Heaven’s entrance when we lift off the dead weight of sin. (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

Every season is pruning season to increase our knowledge of God and stretching our thoughts towards Heaven citizenship. The pruning season is when we take a serious look at our attitudes, actions and beliefs to determine what things and people we need to let go.