Reap What You Sow

For the most part, anyone reading my blog from Texas knows a bit about farming, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with the practice, let me give you the basics.  You plow the land, plant a seed, cover it with soil, water it, give it sunshine and time, and it will grow into a plant and you will be able to harvest whatever you originally planted off it.  That's the key - if you plant a corn seed, you will get a stalk of corn, you won't get an apple tree out of the cord kernel.  Another key is that if you plant one or two corn kernels, you will not get just one or two corn kernels back - you will get between 2 and 4 ears of corn with around 800 kernels per ear - which is an average of 2400 kernels for the one or two you planted.  That's an increase of 1200%!


Now, lets take that practice and apply it to our lives.  It's as true in our lives as it is in farming - what we put into our bodies will come back out, but at a very increased rate.  So lets say you're trying to lose weight and get fit, but all you're eating is junk food - chocolate, ice cream, sodas, etc.  Do you really think you are going to lose weight?  NO, you're not; you're going to gain weight very quickly, even if you are getting some exercise every day.  If you plant a strawberry seed, you're not going to get a pear tree out of it! 


Let's take it a bit further:  If you want to get closer to God, but all you're listening to is secular music (secular means separate from religion), you're not going to get closer to God.  If you want to get closer to God, but all you're watching are secular tv shows and movies, you're not going to get closer to God.  The only way to get closer to God is by reading is word, and worshiping Him.  The only way to get an apple tree to grow is to plant apple seeds.  You have to plant God's word in your heart, and give it sun, water and time to grow.


So lets say you have decided to walk closer with God, and for the first week, you spend time everyday in God's word - you plant the seed and water it and give it everything it needs for that first week. But then, you slip up and miss a few days of reading the Bible - that's ok, as long as you get back into it as soon as you can.  But if you miss a few days, and then decide that since you've already planted the seed, it will just grow on it's own, you're wrong.  If you plant a grape seed and keep it happy for the first week, it will not continue to grow if you ignore it for the next 6 months.  It's going to wither and die.  The same will happen to your walk with God - if you give it what it needs for a week, that will not sustain it through the rest of your life.  You have to continue to put the word of God in you and continue to nurture it in order to get it to grow.


It's kind of like a grape vine in the sense that they continue to produce grapes year after year - you don't have to plant a new set of seeds every year; once you have planted the seed and it begins to produce fruit, you do not have to re-plant every year - all you have to do it continue to give it water and sun and time. 


We can apply the same concept to our lives in general - what we put into our bodies when we are young will come out when we are older.  What we plant in our lives as teenagers and young adults is what our lives will produce when we are older.  If we spend our youth partying and not taking care of our bodies, it will come back and bite us in the butt when we are older, possibly in the form of heart conditions, liver disease, etc.  If we spend our youth being rude and obnoxious to people around us, we will spend the rest of our lives being rude and obnoxious and we will drive away the people we love and that love us, and we will end our lives with disappointment and regret.  If we spend our lives, however, spreading the love of God to everyone we meet, we will continue to spread Jesus' love throughout our lives and we will have the joy of knowing that we made a positive impact on at least one person's life, and probably many, many more, and we will have the reward in Heaven for sharing Jesus with that many people.


So today, I want to ask you this:  What will you reap from your life?  Are you going to reap Heavenly rewards, or are you going reap disappointment and regret? 


Please remember that, even if this far in your life you have only planted anger and hate, you can still plant the word of God and it will grow if you nurture it.  So, if right now, you feel like at the end of your life, what you will reap is not going to be good, take this time to change it and make a better life for you and your family.


Take the time today to tell the ones you love that you love them - because you never know if you'll get another chance to do it.