The Two Trees Model

I thought I’d share a little something I learned in school while completing my MABC at The Master’s College. I can’t remember which class I learned it in, but I do remember Dr. John Street teaching me the illustration during class lecture. It is called the “two tree model” – or at least that is what I refer to it as.

I really enjoy illustrations, especially to help learn a concept. Several times throughout my MABC classes, professors would use an illustration to help communicate a point. One of the illustrations I remember the best, and probably use the most, is this two tree model. (I sketched a pictured of the illustration so you can see and follow along better.)

HEAT (the sun) – First you start with the “heat”. The heat in your illustration is the specific circumstances in your life you are struggling with or want to examine and change. It can be anything. To keep things less complicated, just try to start off with one circumstance. Here are some examples:
• Fear of labor and giving birth
• The struggles of a new mom
• Loss of a job
• Death of a loved one

BAD FRUIT (tree #1) – Second you then put “bad fruit” on your tree. These are any of your behaviors, actions, thoughts, feelings, or desires that have controlled your life as a result of the circumstances you listed above in your sun. For example
• Excessive crying and anger that your baby won’t sleep through the night.
• Depression and lack of faith in God because you don’t have a job
• Jealousy and envy of other friends who are able to give birth the way you wanted to

Anyways, you get the idea. Don’t get too caught up at this point analyzing your behavior and thoughts wondering if it is truly wrong or right. Instead just try to list everything you notice in your life that has resulted from the circumstance you are examining.

HEART IDOL (root of tree one) – Third is the step that takes some thinking and time. All of these behaviors and fruit on your tree don’t manifest by themselves. Nor are they a direct result of your circumstance. Instead, they come from your heart! You are worshiping something other than God. Look at all of the fruit you just put on your tree. If you had to sum it all up by completing this sentence, “I want/need….” what would it be?

For me, if I were to complete this illustration for “struggles of a new mother” the root of my tree and heart idol would be “I want/need control and independence.” For me all of my actions, behavior, feelings, etc. were resulting from a heart that was choosing to worship my own control and independence rather than to worship God. I was jealous of other moms who had the birth experience I wanted – because I wanted to be able to control the birth process of my son the way I wanted. I was angry and depressed at the demands of a being a new mother because I wanted my own independence and didn’t want to be fully responsible for another life. I think you get the idea.

GOSPEL (the cross) – Now how to change! True heart change is only possible through the gospel! Sure I could try hard and change my behavior (my fruit) to be better and different. But that wouldn’t change my heart. If I wanted to go from worshiping control and independence I needed Jesus Christ to change my heart through the power of the Gospel. This illustration can easily be misused and misapplied by ignoring this crucial step! Without the Gospel any change would be mere behavioralism!

GOOD FRUIT (tree #2) – Tree #2 contains the fruit (the behavior, thoughts and feelings) of a changed heart that is now worshiping God. Note, your circumstances will not necessarily change, but if your heart is changed by the gospel, then the fruit of your life will change. God was faithful to change my heart when I struggled with being a new mom. The struggles of motherhood did not go away. I still had to feed my son around the clock, I still had to be responsible for him and I couldn’t just get up and do what I wanted anymore. But because God was gracious and faithful to change my heart my fruit changed. Instead of anger, jealousy and faithlessness – I had love, joy, and trust in a perfect all-wise, all-good, God who was in control of my life.

I hope this illustration is helpful. I use it a lot in my own life. My professor said he uses this illustration in the majority of the cases he counsels, to help him sort out everything he learns in order to help the counselee more clearly see the heart issue in their circumstance. I am planning on sharing this illustration with the ladies in my bible study, and I wanted to think through the illustration again before I did so. Was it clear? What area/part do you not understand?

It’s funny. I often first realize that there is a heart idol in my life when I start to see bad fruit in my life (anger, jealousy, envy, controlling/consuming thoughts, faithlessness, etc). I have wondered a few times if I should sit down and do this illustration on my love for cloth diapers. To tell you the truth, I am a bit scared to do so. I wonder what I would discover about my heart? Would everything be okay in that area, or would there be something I need to repent of??