Planting seeds

My husband and I have finally after years of talking about wanting to plant a garden, have started working on where it will go.  As we have talked about this and started to tear out bushes in an area; I started to remember watching my grandfather work his garden.

As a young child, I would watch my pappaw get up early to go work on his garden. Every day like clockwork, he would be outside doing something with that garden.  One particular time I remember being outside with him.  

     "Pappaw, why are you tearing up that dirt?"  

        "Cole (that's what he called me), if I don't then I can't put the seed down." 

     "Don't you just throw it on top?"  

         "No, you can't just throw it on top. You have to bury it." 

      "Why you have to bury it?" 

          " If I don't, then the animals could come and eat it." 

     "Well, won't they eat it even if you bury it.  Like a dog buries a bone.  They'll dig it up." 

         " That's what this is for (holds up a spray bottle).  This has stuff in it that the animals don't like.               if I spray the area with it. The animals won't bother it." 

     "Oh, okay." 

So, I watched as he worked the soil. Tilling it. Drudging up the dirt and making little holes, with a thumbprint size in the middle of these holes. 

   "What is that for pappaw?"

       "That's where I'm going to put the seed." 

   "To keep it safe and hidden from the animals, right?"

       "That's right." 

Then, I watched while he carefully placed the seed in that little thumbprint area. He'd then cover it with the dirt.  He put his hand on the top, and at every single mound he'd pause; I would see him close his eyes and whisper something. 

   "Pappaw, it looks like you are praying over every mound of dirt. Are you praying?"

      "Yes Cole.  I am thanking God for providing me a way to grow our food." 

   "Pappaw, why are you thanking him before you see if your going to have any food?" 

      "Because, I have learned to thank him for what I have before I see it. That's called Faith."

   "It doesn't make much sense to do that, what if it doesn't grow? Won't you be mad?" 

      "No Cole. Just because something isn't what you expected, doesn't mean He won't provide it for          you. The way you need it to grow you."    

    "Grow you? Grow you how?" 

       "You learn early on, what equipment to use. Where to plant a certain plant. How much water and           sunlight it needs. So that it flourishes." 

Now, as I have grown into a wife and mom. I see subtle hints throughout his garden and his words to me.  Our words have power and meaning. Like a seed.  If we cultivate the right area and get it ready for planting, the seed will be better received and flourish where it is planted.  You hide the seed so that you can protect from an enemy of the seed.  A seeds enemy is animals and some bugs. 

A farmer doesn't go out into his field/yard and look it over. Then, just throw the seeds in the wind and then wait for it to grow.  No, he has to work the soil. Cultivate it. Then, hide the seed to keep it from being taken over by its enemy. When the enemy comes close it smells what I've sprayed over it, and retreats. So, then the farmer can go out and start to see the "fruits of their labor".   

Same thing with relationships with God and others. 

Psalm 119:11 says, 

  I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

   God gave the writers the scriptures to pen. So that we might "plant" them within our spirits. So that we might hide them in our hearts. So when the enemy comes, the words would be like a river of living waters that surge out of our mouths. Like the spray that deters an enemy from coming closer to eat what the farmer has planted.

Hebrews 4:12 says, 

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 

His word has power to overtake the enemy. 

I can tell you from experience, that this life isn't at all what I expected.  I didn't expect the struggles and challenges we have to face every day with our kids. One of our children had seizures as a baby. Doctors couldn't tell us why. We started to notice milestones were later than other kids. Some things took so much longer to accomplish. There were times I wondered if she would achieve them at all.   Then they'd happen. I'd cry.  We waited for them and hoped for them. We cheered and made huge deals out of them, because they were.  They are huge deals! We experience them on a deeper level than most other parents.  It's not how we expected it to be, but nonetheless; It is what has grown me spiritually.  

The enemy was behind me and breathing at me from all sides.  I was angry and bitter.  An unexpected bill. The enemy breathed harder, until my shoulders started to slump. I was tired, much more than I was with the birth of my first baby. All I could see when I closed my eyes was the trauma her little body had went through. All I could feel was her being pulled out of my arms and whisked away down the hall by a team of doctors and nurses. I could see her with all these cords, ivs, monitors on her whole body. The enemy cheered as I fell to the floor in the spiritual realm. Hands, head everything slumped towards the floor.  At the time, I couldn't even pray. I could sing though. The words that came to me weren't words of resentment. No, they were words of worship. Even in the time of our pain and suffering, words I had hidden in my heart flowed out of me in lyrics of songs.  

As I sang, chains broke free that had been wrapped around my wrists ( in the spiritual sense).  The enemy started to cower behind me "NO!  She isn't.  NO! I thought we had done it. I thought we had her."   I sang more.  Another chain broke free. Man, I could move my shoulders. I could lift my head. The enemy again, "NO! What...What is she doing? She's started to move. She's squaring her shoulders. She's lifting her head up. NO!"  You see, in the spiritual world.  I was squaring my shoulders up getting ready for battle.  As more words came, I began to remember some scriptures and say them out loud. That "seed" was starting to grow up out of me.  I didn't even realize at the time I had been equipped for this battle; I didn't even know years ago I would be fighting. As I began to sing and quote scriptures, more chains began to break off. The enemy continued to cower in the background. The more scriptures I started stating, the more the enemy started to shrink and wither up like a weed being plucked away from the garden. The more words came, the more scriptures flowed out, the less weight was holding me down. I could lift my legs a little easier. My arms moved better. I was no longer on my knees but I was starting to stand. I was starting to punch back at the enemy, rallying around me were prayer warriors and warrior angels fighting for my baby and me. The more I hit back with the word, the stronger I became. The stronger I became, the weaker my enemy was. 

Like, a farmer hiding his seed. Those song lyrics were hidden in my heart. They were deep in my spirit. As if I had armor. God will never send you into a battle waving a crayon ; when your enemy has a sword. A farmer learns what tools are needed to grow his fields, and wait for the harvest.  It is time that we stop cowering in the corners with our heads and shoulders down.  NO!  We are the children of the Almighty King.

Revelation 22:13
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

We need to start preparing the fields to receive the seeds of life. The words of God to be grown in others. You can't grow anything in a field that hasn't been prepared to receive it. You can't beat a seed down into a hard ground if you haven't first drudged the dirt up in order to "plant" it. Meaning, you can't brow beat someone with the word of God and then hope they listened. If anything, they brought their hands up to protect themselves. They shielded themselves from your beating.  What you can do however, is cultivate that relationship and let God do the tilling. Show Christ's love to them through you ( as if preparing the soil for a seed to be planted).  Through cultivating it, you are giving it (their spirit) a way to be ready to grow.  Might not be the life you expected. It might not be the way you think it will grow, but when it does; You can rejoice and celebrate when you see the "fruits of your labor" growing.