Sow your Royal Oats!

Gardening for our Souls Part 3

Now when you read the title I know you immediately thought of Coming to America (or maybe not) but the phrase is used to descripe youthful indescretions, indulgence and promiscuity. More aptly put, it refers to men sowing seed graciously upon the earth.

Likewise, you must sow your seed generously.

Sowing seed is the next step in our journey to gardening for our souls.

We have prepared the soil and now we must introduce the tiny, raw form of the seed to the foundation.

At the beginning of this journey, I would only drop one seed into a hole or pod and tell myself that I would come back and try again if it didnt work. I thought I could make sure that every single seed would be used. My plan was to check every few days for growth and when I found a hole or pod with a dud, then I would plant another seed.

It was a disaster! It caused me to waver between different steps in the process during different parts of a plant cycle. It became tedious to have to change the way I had to water, fertilize, weed and prune per plant in my beds.

It is important to note that seeds are not only cheap but they have an expiration date as well. All seeds have a specific growing season, so I would only be able to plant them maybe 2 or 3 times before the seed was no longer viable .

Now, excluding the exotic or controlled seeds, you can buy a pack of seeds for about $3. It was pure ridiculousness for me to behave this way with the seeds.

But, it is very difficult to put all our eggs in one basket. This is what we have repeatedly heard but is should never apply to things in seed form.

I have learned that if you don't sow your seed generously, you will pay in time. You will spend time and labor for a smaller harvest that you cold have gotten for cheaper.

Do not hold on to potential for a later date.

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2nd Corinthians 9:6

This Scripture was not just about giving to receive more, but also having faith to grow more.

When we plant a seed of faith, we are believing that the harvest will be worth it. I plant tomatoe seeds without knowing or expecting how many tomatoes I will harvest.

The harvest we want, however, is in Galatians 5:22-23.

The point of all this is to plant seeds that will create a closer relationship and more spiritual depth.

So what are the seeds to plant if you want to grow love? Joy? Peace? And how do we sow them generously?

I will start with the example of love. Before planting any seed you must learn specifications of that plant. That information is normally on the back of the packet. In the case of love, we will study the bible.(1st Corinthians 13:4-7). This scripture shows us that love is not just one seed, but the culmination of different seeds growing together.

This set of verses begins with love is patient. The first seed we have to sow is patience to reap or develop more patience in us.

Patience is the ability to accept delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.

Daily life will always bring delays, problems or suffering no matter how carefully we plan. Just knowing that they will happen is half the battle.

If you have reached your great big age and still expecting anything at all to go perfectly, you may need to speak to a professional.

For some of us, sowing seeds of patience may be as simple as creating a game plan or preparing how to respond when delays happens. For others, it may be practicing patience in manufactured situations,

I would purposely choose the longest line in the store and force myself to stay in that line. It wasn't easy and the first few times, I gave up and went to shorter lines. But I persisted.

I also got into the habit of asking myself "What did it cost me to..." , so that I could keep the right persepective. Often, there isn't any actual damage just our expectations hurt.

The trick is to do these things all the time.

Just as with the physical seeds, I thought I would only try the long line thing, when I felt I had enough time to do it. But that is not sowing generously. I had to do it every single time I went into the store.

I learned that I never lost as much time as I thought and that it made no difference to whatever I was rushing to.

As you grow in patience is one area, you will realize that you see the real time harvest in your life as patience spills over onto you loved ones and at work and so on. You will also notice that as you work on patience, you are also growing in joy.

Growing spiritually is sowing those little small seeds all the time.

In the same way, we must approach the fruits of the spirits with a planned and determined effort to reap a great harvest.