3 Points to Ponder
- “Every day we throw seeds into the ground of our future. Are the seeds you are throwing today going to produce something of beauty or weeds to be pruned at a later date?”
- “Great farmers understand the need for crop rotation. Different plants bring different nutrients, allowing the soil to produce year-over-year. We are no different, as we need to rotate activities, thought patterns, and conversations to keep producing year-over-year. Are you stuck in a rut or introducing new crops into your soil of thinking?”
- “Seed-to-soil contact is critical for proper growth. Such it is with God. To grow to be the person we were created to be, we have to be in constant contact with Him. And day by day, we will transform from a little seed into something beautiful to share with the world.”
2 Quotes to Share
“Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” -Charles Reade
“The person who sows generously will also reap generously.” – Anonymous
1 Story of Impact
It was a Monday morning and it was hot. Standing in the middle of a field in Haiti, the IMPACT team I was leading was a little bewildered. Arriving the day before, everyone was trying to get their bearings, as everything looked and felt different than life back in the States. Even though all of us live in Iowa, none of us are farmers and most of us have never planted any food, let alone peanuts. (I know for you East Coasters you all think we Iowans are farmers. Surprise…we aren’t!) To us, peanuts come from a jar with that one eye spectacle shell-looking person on it, not the actual ground. A strong Haitian young man started swinging a handmade hoe, digging little holes for us to drop two peanuts into, then cover up with our foot. We did this for a little over an hour, covering maybe a quarter of the field. We were called off to the next activity, but the Haitian workers kept planting, filling the entire 2-acre field. During reflection time that night, one of the participants commented, “It is hard for me to believe that will do anything. I’ve never really planted before and now I’m super interested to see the results.” But as with any seed, it takes time to see the results. Fast forward to this week as I received a text with pictures from our Director of Agronomy with a bountiful harvest of peanuts from the field we planted. His comment, “True impact on many levels.” I sent this to our team, “Wow! Cool to see. That’s a lot of peanuts.” Are the seeds you are throwing today going to produce something beautiful? Or will it produce weeds to be pruned at a later date? Where in your life do you need to stay in that hot sun for a little longer to keep planting?
