How Does Your Garden Grow?

by Lynn Mosher
(Louisville, KY)

Do you love to tend a garden? Are you a prolific gardener, producing a bumper crop of everything you sow, or are you a threat to nature, killing even artificial plants? I tend to be somewhat closer to a threat!

If you love to garden, what vegetables will you plant this year? Tomatoes, green beans, lettuce? What about flowers? Cosmos, Sweet Peas, sunflowers? How about herbs? Basil, thyme, rosemary?

Whenever you plant seeds in your garden, you incorporate all the necessary elements to make them grow…planting for the best sun, providing water, critter repellent, bug spray, and tossing in some fertilizer and plant food, all in order to have strong, healthy plants. After the proper care, you know that, in time, you will have the fruits of your labor, the product of what you have sown.

No matter what size your garden, whether it is a pot on your balcony, a small plot in your backyard, or a farm-size field, the harvest depends on your choice of seeds.

When a farmer wants oranges, he does not plant tomatoes, and when he wants zucchini, he does not plant an apple tree. He has confidence that what he plants will be produced. Seems basic enough; whatever is sown is reaped.

That is Basic Bible Principles 101. This basic truth is applicable to every area of our lives. As the Bible says, “For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.” (Gal. 6:7 AMP)

Your everyday life is your garden. What you sow into it grows up around you.

Do you sow the things of the world each day as negative, worthless seeds? The weed seeds of pride, fear, doubt, unbelief, defeat, depression, and complaining?

Do you spread fertilizer on their soil in the form of gossiping to others, hatred magnified by prejudice, lust fueled by flirting around at work, unforgiveness inflated into bitterness, or whining so much that others don’t want to be around you?

Paul said, “Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.” (Gal. 6:8-9 NLT)

So, do you sow positive, flourishing seeds of the Word? Like the seeds of faith, hope, strength, health, forgiveness, humility, and praise? Do you water them with joy, peace, love, encouragement, and blessing?

In what amounts do you sow them? In whatever amount you sow, it will come back to you, as Paul said, “A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much.” (2 Cor. 9:6b TLB)

The Received Greek Text says it this way, “The one sowing on hope of blessing will also reap on blessing.” Consequently, a bumper crop of anything is proportionate to its sowing. Therefore, consciously sow to the end result desired.

That verse also says that he who sows sparingly doesn’t get much in return. If you are stingy with the good seeds, retaining them to yourself, they produce nothing. Seeds have no intrinsic value in and of themselves. Therefore, seeds hoarded in the seed packet never produce another seed packet! They must be sown!

At the end of each day, do you end up with more positive or negative seeds? Or do you have a mixture of blessings and cursings?

Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant,” not only in thoughts and words but also in deeds.

What will you plant this day?