Sow what?
March 10, 2011
Being a transplant from the Deep South (Mississippi) to the Northeast (Pennsylvania), I am often asked two questions. The first one invariably addresses my still thick Southern accent and the second is almost always about the weather.
“So, how do you like the winters here?”
My answer regarding the cold and snow most often takes people by surprise. I don’t mind the cold and snow so much during what I consider “winter months”. Nothing compares to a white Christmas and the first two months of the year, it’s supposed to cold, wet, and wintry. That’s January and February’s job, if you will. Here’s what gets me: Spring doesn’t arrive with the date on the calendar. See, in my part of the South (my neck of the woods), people are already wearing tank tops and shorts, the windows are open catching the warm breezes, and the ground is ready to be filled with seeds for the summer gardens.
Here, I know it will be at least mid-May before I put my hands in the dirt and this year, that’s particularly important to me because I’ve been studying sowing and reaping. I started pondering the concept at the end of last year (during winter) and it seems that every book I read and every Bible Scripture I reference connects with it.
2 Corinthians 9:6 is probably the best known passage about “reaping what you sow”.
“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
But this time when I read it, I looked a little closer and noticed that to sow bountifully means “to sow with blessings”. That caused me to stop and consider how almost every time I’ve heard this verse used, it’s been in a negative connotation. Mostly I heard it used when I was a teenager as a way to keep me out of trouble. “You will reap what you sow, young lady!” No one said anything about sowing with blessings…
When spring finally arrives (and it will) and I sow flower seeds, I will reap beautiful blooms. That’s the law of the harvest and now that I think about it sowing blessings actually sounds like fun! How to do it? Well, the most practical way to sow a blessing in someone’s life is with words. Words are powerful and take root quickly in people’s hearts and minds.
Have you sown a blessing in someone you love lately? Can you think of a way to affirm them with your words? As Ephesians 4:29 says in the Amplified Bible: “Let no foul language or worthless talk come out of your mouth, but only speech that is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others… that it may be a blessing and give grace to those who hear it.”
Looking for more words? Read Psalm 40 8-10. Are you speaking of God’s faithfulness and righteousness? That will surely sow blessings. (CT)