Tag: Doctors

Sow, Then Reap

12/17/22

I visited a verse this week that I saw in a different light. II Corinthians 9:6 tells us, “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” What are the immediate thoughts when this verse is used, which many of us have heard hundreds of times in our lives?

There may be many applications, but my immediate thought has taken me to gardening. I have proven this verse to be wrong. I plant an over-abundant amounts of seeds and plants in our small garden out back, and then I proceed to over-fertilize, under water, leave the weeds and then cross the tomatoes with the corn. I am the worse gardener ever, but I am a pro at growing the weeds! Actually, the plants and seeds I put in the ground typically come up and they are perfect, but I hardly reap anything. Except one year I planted jalapenos; it was amazing! There were so many, I did it the next year because, hey, why not, I can grow something. The problem is we do not eat jalapenos. Seriously, our taste buds do not do super spicey, but I made some salsa. Then after a couple of weeks and more growth, I passed the jalapenos on to friends who use them often. I was super proud. I have to say my succulent journey has been pretty much the same. I have some growth, then barely alive for months, then death, then trash; many times over.

II Corinthians is definitely not proven wrong by my lack of green thumb, of course, but the amount of sowing and the correct sowing and the amount of reaping are in direct correlation with each other. Now, what else comes to mind and what does this verse really mean to us? Sow sparingly, reap sparingly; sow bountifully, comes back to us sometimes ten-fold, even the sparingly part. What areas can we apply this to in our lives today? Absolutely everything! Our pastor spoke to our teens on Sunday about decisions they make today are crucial to their future. I have told teen girls that multiple times. Their whole future is ahead of them and what will they choose today to make a Godly go at it? If we as adults apply this verse today, let us wake up and throw out the seed of quiet time with God. How much we sow gives to us encouragement, joy, strength; anything that we are as Christians to move forward in our day. Makes us think about having sown quiet time. Then our harvest will be an amazing day. Well, if it turns out not to be so amazing, at least we sowed Christ into our soul and spirit to draw peace and strength to face what might be the hardest day/days of our life.

Been there, people, and I wish my thirteen-year-old self had Jesus, because the discouragement that came with my cancer diagnosis was other-worldly. Thoughts of taking my life were never a part of my brain activity; I have to say I cared about me more than to take my life, but dying in my sleep? That would have been a peaceful way to go, was my thinking. I knew of God and how He could have made that happen. I just did not know God like I do today. I have learned to say, God is sovereign and has each and every step orchestrated for me. At thirteen, I wanted those steps to be my steps and the orchestration written out my way, so I did the only thing I knew to do and that was survive. God may have been in control, but that hair loss was not going to keep me depressed. I wore a wig. That chemo treatment was not going to keep me out of school, I went every day except the day after chemo. I was not sick, and no one could convince me otherwise. This was just an inconvenience. Sowing Jesus in my life was just what I heard in Sunday school, so I realized I needed Him almost a year after my diagnosis, and I saw Him as my Savior. Then in college, He got a hold of my heart and made me realize I had nothing to do with being alive, healthy, and with the ability to serve Him. He challenged me to start sowing my quiet time, then He started reaping in me a soul and spirit that truly depended on Him for every single day. One that looks to Him for joy, strength, health! My mantra: everything, everyday has God’s hand on it.

God asks us to sow. He asks us to throw out the seed of giving; of our finances, of our time, our lives to service. We could give lunch with a friend, gifts to others, or maybe coffee to a coworker just because. We should know if we sow, we are going to reap benefits. God sees and He may not bless financially now when we give financially, but who has ever given a gift just because and did not feel a ping of joy? There is the reap. We reap what we sow in our time. I have been hustling on to get something done and been stopped numerous times because that person needed time. I came away with a happy heart, a blessed moment in that relationship. Granted, I blew past a majority of people, but that is where I need to work on my sowing. People need us, people need time, people need love. Why are we too busy to give to people, or should we say, why do we not give to people and make the “busy” excuse. The verse, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly,…” Proverbs 18:24, then show friendly and reap. We have had conversations with our boys multiple times about this very same thing. Need encouragement, show encouragement. Reach outside of our self and be nice, be helpful, and be someone to someone else when they may not have someone, because THE SOMEONE asks us too. The amounts of sowing opportunities in our lifetime are abundant, whether right or wrong, we really should be aware and calculated with our lives, determining our steps ordered by God. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” He is for us.

Throw out the seed of kindness. Our families deserve our kindness, and we reap abundantly what we sow in this area. It actually is an immediate reaping, right? Throw out the seed of love. Love is a choice, it is a feeling, too, but if we do not feel loved or want to give love, that really does not determine our love for someone. But we choose to love, and our God has shown us the ultimate love, so who are we not give back to Him and others? Throw out the seed of joy. “How are you?” I submit to you, let us start saying what an old friend used to say every time, “Super Fantastic.” instead. Throwing out a joyful response really helps us feel better about what is going on around us at any given moment. Throw out the seeds of peace. Our generation today has a huge entitlement issue, thus keeping things volatile. No one is entitled to anything when we have Christ in our lives and when we do not, we still are not entitled because God has the whole universe in His hands and controls everything. Each person is on this earth because of one God. Finally, just throw out the rest of the seeds of Galatians 5:22, 23; “…against such there is no law.”

What are we sowing today? There are many people in my life that have taught me the seeds to throw out so that I may reap. I am grateful and truly blessed to have them in my life, because I then can testify if I sow abundantly, I will reap abundantly.

The Pink Stuff

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9/26/18

The list of my activities in the new school: choir, volleyball, basketball, and track. Singing, cleaning, and youth activities were added to my list for the new church. The new home brought a new room with organizing my clothes and shoes and doing my homework. My parents worked at the church and for the school district. By the beginning of our second year in Wyoming, my brother and I were starting school again in eighth grade and sixth grade in the same building. Our youngest brother spent time with another family in the church during the day until he would start school the next year.

Winter came, and we were still getting used to the first snow falling in October. It was pretty hard spending so much time indoors, so my brother started Spelling Bee competitions which we worked on at home. He was doing very well. In addition, we quickly found ourselves learning to ski as a family. These Texans caught on a little, and soon enjoyed the snowy outdoor life. In February, I felt this weird hard spot in my lower abdomen. Mom and I talked about it and decided that we would see if it was just a part of being a teenage girl.

March 1990

Within a few weeks, I woke up on a Monday morning and did not feel well enough to go to school. The flu, that is what it was. Achy and feeling pretty wiped out. My mom said I could stay home from school, and we went to the doctor. The pediatrician did not seem concerned until my mom mentioned that I had this hard spot in my stomach, and maybe he should check it out. After the examination of my stomach, he said that I was either 3 months pregnant, or I had a tumor. My mom’s eyes got huge and she firmly said, “She is not pregnant.” Ask mom, I probably looked exactly like her, because I immediately said, “I am not pregnant; I don’t even have a boyfriend!” This was verbalized partly because there were cute guys at school but I knew “none of them liked me.”

The doctor said that we would need to do a CT scan to see what we were dealing with. He sent us home with this awful pink drink that made me gag. I could not believe that any medical concern would require me to drink this awful stuff, and furthermore there was absolutely nothing wrong with me! The next morning after downing only a little bit of the pink stuff, we arrived at the hospital, and the nurses told me I have to drink more, because I did not finish the first one. I was not having it, but I did what I could to get by, and they took me back. I was in a new world, surrounded by all these machines, and once I got back there, they injected more dye in my veins through a needle.

After the whole ordeal, there was a waiting period, and my pediatrician came and got us. I remember so vividly walking into a dark room with films hanging up all over on glass walls. The doctor began to explain what each of the pictures were, and I realized at that moment this was not a good situation. Those pictures in front of me and the explanation from the doctor were going to change my thirteen-year-old life forever. I was totally unaware of that.

The pictures showed me black blobs. I remember the doctor explaining to us where a certain organ was, “and surrounding it we see there is a tumor.” He said that about all my abdominal organs. In my mind, I deducted that we could not see anything because of the “black blob”. I did not realize that was not good. That day, we headed to Salt Lake City which was about 80 miles away. There was a well-known Primary Children’s Hospital which had a fantastic oncology center. The hospital was located downtown at the time, and I was going to be admitted to have surgery to remove the tumor. It was pretty busy in the hospital, and we passed a couple of kids in beds in the hall in transition between rooms. They told us that the hospital was constantly running out of space, but that a new hospital was within days of opening up just a few miles away.

I remember feeling anxious because of the results of the CT scan. I was also aware that we were about to do surgery and remember the doctor come in to talk to us. He mentioned they recently did surgery on another girl that came in and had her tumor removed because it was benign. That is what they were hoping they could do with me. Or that is what they were telling me. Through this time, I know my parents were receiving much more information than I was. My dad’s pastor friends from the Salt Lake area came by to pray for me, and I was quite aware that God was in control; just not fully aware. I do not remember thinking to myself that He was going to take care of me or of a peace that came over me. I kept saying to myself, “Let’s just get this over with.” I was so done with this hospital thing already, and besides, I had schoolwork I needed to catch up on. It is so hard to explain how I could be in such denial to the happenings around me.

Even though I was not really excepting the situation at the time, throughout the process and many years later, I learned how much my God was taking care of me. These verses below show God’s direction and power; bringing them to life for a Christian. They show us how He knows all about us and the things we go through, and the psalmist recognizes how we can praise God for those things because we have chosen to follow Him.

Psalm 139:1-5, 14

“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me, Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art aquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me… …I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”