Tag: Love

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.

Not Just About Me

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9/28/18

Before we can move on with the words from the doctors, we have to focus on four very important people whose lives would be forever changed by those words. It was not just my life. As I mentioned before, two brothers and a dad and mom were very much a part of my thirteen years leading up to this day in March. Well, dad and mom for thirteen, a brother for twelve and another one for four. My eldest brother was just a year younger than me; fourteen months. When we were little I was always on the smaller side so the one time I cut my hair, we looked like twin boys. Nice! I was the bossy older sister, and he was the creative but willing follower. We had fun, and as our surroundings changed with the move, not much changed; except for the growing up. He did fantastic in school, and as I mentioned before was making progress up the Spelling Bee ladder. He did not join us when we went to the hospital, but my dad brought both brothers up later. Feelings about what was going on were on his face because he was a caring person. I appreciated that more than I ever expressed. Later he would help me keep normalcy alive; which was difficult because of the new normal that I would have a hard time accepting.

Little brother was a fun guy to be around; full of life. He was so much younger than us, but we enjoyed him all the same. I think he was the first one to catch onto skiing-down the little hill behind the house. During the beginning of the doctors and hospitals, he spent time with friends and sitters. I noticed he was not around the hospital as much mostly because he was younger, and what could he do? He made up for it later by lying beside the couch after chemo, helping me with the puke bucket.

My parents jumped right into cancer parent mode. What are those? Well, first off what is cancer and how does it happen and why does it happen and what kind and what is the plan of action and what was that chemo drug called?… Their child has cancer and they are responsible for the decisions they make to keep them alive. Every piece of information out there has to be discovered through research, and back then there were no smart phones. My parents, and especially my mom who was by my side the whole time, asked questions, and when there was not an answer she would ask the next nurse or the next doctor and the next. My dad took care of the boys and the church duties.

Cancer parents should get an official medical degree for the amount of time they spend finding out what is inside their child. They have the knowledge that most doctors do when it is all said and done. And they also should receive a gold medal. We all understand a gold medal is placed upon a winner of an event, and most of the time it reminds us of an Olympic athlete. Although I have never been an Olympian, I have seen their stories about the beginning stages and their first accomplishments in the particular event, many starting very young. They all spend hour after hour practicing to compete, until they hit the Olympic stage. Then many times in a timed event, they have to compete liked they trained, and hope they trained harder than the person beside them so they come out in front of them and stand on the winner’s podium. Then they receive the gold medal for being ahead of the rest who worked just as hard to get there.

Why do cancer parents need a gold medal? Because at the beginning stages, they work on this particular “event,” and spend hour after hour asking questions and studying about their child’s cancer. Then they compete against time to make the right decisions with the knowledge they have acquired. They are competing in a race not to beat someone else just something else, but sometimes that something else wins. The end results of an Olympic race differ from this race; more than one person gets the gold medal. The cancer parents. They heard the news their child has cancer, figured out how to process those words, went through the emotions on the inside while staying strong on the outside, and had to put one foot in front of the other to fight to win a cancer race. Yes, they deserve the gold.

Not just one person goes through cancer. Their family does. And although the family is not waking up from surgery, or receiving the chemo drugs, or throwing up every fifteen minutes, or losing their hair, or getting sores in their mouth… they ARE watching their loved one suffer, and they cannot help except for driving them to chemo, or sitting by their side for hours, or singing to them, or holding the puke bucket, or being yelled at when it hurts… It hurts them, too. I have said many times, I felt like cancer was harder on the family then on me. I was just trying to physically survive any way possible.

I Corinthian 13 is the Love Chapter. It speaks of love or charity, and all of its different aspects. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things.” God has shown this love to us when He became man and died on the cross for our sins. This love is demonstrated in this verse and is an example of the love we have in a family. I thank God for my family and their love. They were my earthly rocks to stand on to face the difficult times that would lie ahead.