I do not have a green thumb. A few months ago, I thought I would get an indoor planter to attempt to grow dandelions over the winter for my daughter’s Russian Tortoise. I got a special seed packet. I got really good soil. I decided to use all of the seeds to give myself a good opportunity for success. Truthfully, I’m not certain if this was a good plan. Can a person plant too many seeds? Perhaps. At this point, I see one dandelion plant and one growth that looks like a weed. That is definitely not what was planted so I know I did something wrong. Why? Because you harvest what you plant.
In Galatians 6:7, we read that “God will never be mocked! For what you plant will always be the very thing you harvest” (Galatians 6:7 TPT). What you put into something is what you get out. This sounds too good to be true. You plant something and you get the reward of harvesting it later. Isn’t that a sweet return? It certainly feels like it when the harvest time comes and you have fresh produce decorating your garden. Where’s the hangup? It’s difficult to plant the good things because good things don’t come naturally.
When it comes to planting seeds in the real world, we as a broken people can find ourselves planting seeds out of brokenness, seeds that we do not wish to harvest. Seeds of anger. Seeds of unforgiveness. Seeds of hatred. Seeds of discontent. Seeds of judgment. Seeds of fear. Seeds of ignorance. We plant these seeds without even realizing it. For some of us, our childhood was rooted in these seeds. It’s a cycle and we find it difficult to overcome. It’s all we know. For some of us, the world comes at us hard and out comes the seeds of discouragement, seeds of lies, seeds of jealousy. Seeds of greed. Seeds of frustration. When we plant these seeds, we harvest them. It’s that simple. The hard work is planting the good seeds. This is why we need to live by the Spirit. It’s the only way we can plant a field of good seeds.
If you have a tough situation at work, ask yourself what seeds you are planting around the office. If you are having difficulty with your children, again, ask yourself what seeds you are planting. If you are having relationship problems, what seeds are you planting? You reap what you sow. Let it be love. Let it be joy. Let it be peace. Let is be patience. Let it be kindness. Let it be goodness. Let it be faithfulness. Let it be gentleness. Let it be self-control. These are the seeds each of us can plant as we go through our day, with each person we meet. It’s not an easy task, but it’s one that can be accomplished with the Spirit’s help. We may mess up at times, but if we aim to plant these good things, if we live intentionally and follow the Spirit’s leading, we will have a good harvest. This harvest isn’t planted all at once. It’s not like the dandelion seeds I dumped into a planter. This planting is a day-by-day, moment-by-moment planting. Friends, what are you planting today?
Tania Gutekunst 