What's Growing in Your Garden?

I don't know about you, but for the longest time now, I have been getting my vegetables from the bins at the supermarket....and that's truly not a problem. However, now with all the scary scenarios circling around with the spread of the corona virus, I am beginning to wonder if that is such a good idea. Perhaps it would be better to grow my own!

You see, as a kid growing up on Logie Avenue in Charlotte, we had a BIG back yard. One year it was our ball field and the next year it was at least a half-acre garden; one that I spent many a long, sweaty afternoon, tilling, planting, watering or weeding. It was a family affair, overseen by my father.  Yes, my dad took great pride in that garden and the many pounds and pounds of beans, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and other assorted vegetables that my Mom and my aunt made into delicious, summertime meals. What we could not eat, my dad took to work or to near-by neighbors and gave away to share in our agricultural bounty....yes, as I look back on those days and the work of my small hands, I also take great pride in what my Dad taught me as we tilled together in that dirt in our back yard.

One thing that I learned at the age of 8 was quite simple ...you reap what you plant!  If I planted lima bean seeds, we got lima beans...Corn seeds, stalks of corn, twice my size! Plant a tomato plant and I got more tomatoes that I could count. Though this is not profound, it is a great way to teach a young child....and Scripture concurs in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."

And this holds true in the life of us all...You harvest what you have planted!!!! So if you plant love and kindness in your dealings with others, you reap the blessings of what you have sown. Sow anger...Get anger! Sow patience...reap patience!  Sow cheating...get cheating! I think you get where I'm going with this....if you sow the things of the Spirit, then you will reap the things of the Spirit...love, joy, peace, kindness, grace and more; however, sow seeds of the flesh like greed, malice, selfishness, self- centeredness and anger and your will reap the same...it all comes back to what I was taught as a child...be careful what you plant because you will at some point harvest what you have sown.

When I was a teenager, a good friend of mine that worked with me in Youth for Christ was a disc jockey at Big WAYS radio by the name of Larry Black. Larry would sign off of his on air program each day with a saying that has always stuck with me and played a big part as a mantra in my own life to this day...it goes something like this:

BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU SOW YOUR WILD OATS...YOU CAN'T PRAY FOR CROP FAILURE... ' CAUSE THE GOOD BOOK SAYS IT DON'T WORK THAT WAY!!!!

And for a young man in his teen years this was rock solid advice. I faced a lot of temptations as a young man, but thanks to this mantra and to good solid role models like my dad, Larry Black, Bob Ferster, Roy Tisdale and so many others along the way, I have tried to sow the seeds that led me to look forward to harvest time and not dread what lay ahead due to the seeds I had planted.

Did I always get a bumper crop of good? Absolutely not!!! But what I got made me appreciate everyone that was willing to sow seeds of love, patience, kindness and great expectations into a young man who was trying to live out what I had been taught at a very young age....

"Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul...and your neighbor as yourself!"

The question for each of us is really quite simple...What kind of seeds have your sown and are you looking forward to harvest time? If not, it is never too late to start a new season of planting using the right seeds so that harvest time will be one of thanksgiving and rejoicing....

Spring is just around the corner, so here's to a great season of planting the RIGHT seeds so that the Master of the harvest will be well pleased....

Planting His seeds...Eager for the Harvest to come,

WPQ

Poem for the day...

Eager to become the man

That God wants me to be;

Hoping for approval from

All who would now see...

The life that I'm now living

In the things I've come to know;

Are the choices of my plantings

And the seeds that I did sow.

Seeds of joy and love and kindness

That I have planted everyday;

Are the harvest that I am reaping

Through those who've come my way!

And my one great prayer will always be

As I faithfully follow my Father's Son....

Is that the harvest that I am reaping

Is from my plantings that were well done!

WPQ © March 2020