About a block from my house sits a garden plot. It is on the corner of two prominent streets that I pass all the time. It draws much attention to passersby because it is immaculate. I never see a weed growing between the rows of vegetables, each row is as straight as a road in Indiana, and the vegetables are beautiful and flourishing. It also gets attention because they have a scarecrow family that has grown over the years. It started out just as a human family with a man, then a wife was added, now they have three children! The gardener dresses the family according to the holiday – it’s so cute!
- You always reap what you sow.
- You always reap more than you sow.
- You always reap in a different season than you sow.
Those things are certainly all true of that garden plot, but they also apply to the sowing we do in our children’s lives. My inclination is to want results of the sowing right now. When the girls were little I wanted to reap from teaching them of salvation; praise the Lord we did – they were both saved at young ages. I also wanted to reap gratitude, appreciation, and responsibility. Those are seeds that take long a time sprouting.
There are many other seeds that take patience, but we as moms have to just keep planting the seeds, keep watering; keep teaching. Because the soil of each child’s heart is different, they will each respond differently and at different times than another child – even a sibling.
Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing:
for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
The reaping is not up to us – that is up to God. Look for the harvest in your children’s lives as you look for the harvest in your garden, and know that it will come in another season.
Lovingly,
