Watch What You Plant

When something is planted, it is placed in the ground to grow. In thinking about seeds being planted, the words sow and reap come to my mind. To sow means to plant, spread and scatter seeds. What you reap is the crop you gather and the result of your effort. When we look at Galatians 6:7-10, we see that we have a choice of what we sow. We can either sow to please ourselves or sow to please God and be led by His Spirit. There's no doubt about it....whatever we have sown will show up one way or the other in our lives. When we plant something, we may not see the results immediately. When farmers plant seeds, their harvest does not come right away. They realize that over time the results will come. We, as individuals, also plant seeds. We plant seeds every single day. Our words are seeds. Our actions are seeds. That's why it is so important that we watch what we say and do. We have to be careful what we say about ourselves and others. We have to be careful how we treat other people. We may not think that our actions and words mean nothing, but they definitely mean something! When we plant seeds that are positive, that's what we will see in our lives and others. But when we plant seeds that are negative, then that's what we'll see in our lives and others. Then, we wonder why the negative and self-defeating attitudes seem to appear out of nowhere from ourselves or someone else. You need to know that it wasn't out of nowhere. Those negative seeds have been planted over time and are now starting to sprout up. You see, essentially, we can look at everything we do and say as a seed. So, what are you planting? Gossip or prayer? Love or hate? Confusion or peace? Joy or sadness? Help or lack of interest? Hope or discouragement? Have we stunted someone's growth lately? Have we stunted our own growth lately? The wrong seeds being planted will allow us or others not to grow as we should. We also have to check what we're rooted in. Are we rooted in God's Word or the opinions of others? We should be rooted in the Word of God because His Word is the truth. Opinions change, but God's Word doesn't. We have to be careful who we let speak over us and what we speak about ourselves. We need to speak positive and good things. We can't let wrong preaching and teaching get in our ear. We need to get negativity out of our ear. We have to constantly check to make sure that what we are hearing are good seeds. We also have to constantly make sure that we are planting good seeds. Galatians 6:9 says, "And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." We can't stop doing good for ourselves and others. We can't stop planting good seeds. Sometimes you may feel like what you do doesn't matter, but I'm here to tell you it does. What you do matters and you matter! Let's keep planting seeds of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, love, peace, joy, help, and encouragement along the way of our life's journey. Let's watch them spring up into something beautiful!