Monday, February 25, 2013

Throwback: True Confessions of an Inpatient Gardener


This is a blog from several years back.  I am going through old stuff and rearranging and will be posting some oldies I want to remember.  



The Bible says that whatever a man reaps, that he will sow.  Makes sense really.  If I plant tomato seeds, I will get tomatoes.  Green bean seeds, green beans, and so on and so forth.  I would look pretty ridiculous if I was upset that I was harvesting tomatoes, when *I* planted the seeds.  I wouldn't pick them off the plant, constantly whining and griping that they weren't green beans.  That would be....well....stupid.

But....I do this every single day of my life and most of the people I know do it too.  Not with plants, but with people, relationships.  My children right now are having some issues with bad attitudes, not listening, getting upset when asked to clean up after *themselves...*  And it's MY fault.  I have sowed into them cleaning up after them, not making them do that which I know they are capable of doing, and having a bad attitude myself.  But here's where it REALLY gets frustrating.  RIGHT NOW, in my life, I have it all together.  RIGHT NOW I am on top of things, have a good attitude and feel great.  So why is it that at THIS point, when everything is going great in my own life that these problems are cropping up.....I didn't know until I read something very simple, yet profound!!

YOU DO NOT REAP IN THE SAME SEASON THAT YOU SOW!!

Wow.  Seriously, just wow.  I can't go out today and plant some seeds and then harvest the fruit from those seeds by dinnertime tonight.  So whatever it is I am reaping in my life right now, it's from something I've sown a while back.  This can become such a vicious cycle.  You sow some bad attitude like three months back into your children, realize the error of your ways and make a change, and as soon as you are getting that change down pat, you are faced with bad attitudes (or whatever) from the people around you.   Then you say to yourself there's no point in trying anymore because you ARE being the person you are supposed to be and it's "just not working...."  So you stop trying, again sowing some more bad things, and so on and so forth.

Realize today that you may have to weed out the bad stuff while planting the good stuff in everyone around you.  Allow them to get it out of their systems and start planting the good stuff.  Smiles, words of appreciation, a soft voice when you feel like yelling, and then let those seeds have the proper amount of time to grow into beautiful fruit. Right now, you'll still be harvesting some bad, because that's what you've sown.   But if you start today by being the person you know you should be, you will be able to harvest those good things in the proper time.  It takes faith and a belief in what the Bible teaches about this.  And since the God I know is one of truth and never breaks His promises, I know I can rest assured that nothing I do in His name will be in vain.  He wants a good life for us, I just think our tendency to follow the flesh instead of saying no to it gets the best of us most of the time....

I will return a bad attitude with a smile, with patience, with understanding.  Not only am I planting the right kind of seeds, I am leading by example.  My precious children and my wonderful husband are so worth it, even when I want to pull my  hair out and run away :)  Life is too short and the people in it are too sweet to do anything less....

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