Sowing and Reaping

Elizabeth George, who wrote A Woman After God's Own Heart, has long been one of my favorite authors concerning marriage, motherhood, and [for me] grand-motherhood. Her studies take us to a place which almost seems back in time, you know ~ the June Cleaver era...

June Cleaver: Eddie, would you care to stay for dinner? We're having roast beef. [inclusion of the unlikeable - and she cooks a delicious meal too]

Eddie Haskell: No thank you, Mrs. Cleaver. I really must be getting home. We're having squab this evening. [what his house is really like]

...where it is the wife's/mother's role and duty to make the home a pleasant and loving one. Our own fast-paced society of running children 'to and fro', often living on 'fast food take out', and shamefully neglecting husbands to the brink of divorce, are in dire contrast to God's ways. June Cleaver would be appalled. What about God?

Are your priorities in alignment before God - which many women these days seem to have backwards? I did as well, for a long time in my life. But it's never too late to put those priorities in the right order as God Himself commands in His Word.

"You shall have no other God's before Me" ~ Exodus 20

As wives and mothers and grandmothers our priorities should be in line with His Word:

• GOD [first - and foremost]
• Husband [second - and as God's authority in the Lord]
• Children [third - as God has blessed us]

Today as I turned a page in my calendar reading from Elizabeth George, it was all about sowing and reaping. I pondered its contents and scripture and felt compelled to share it here with you. I have sown some things early on in my life that are reaping great [unfortunate] consequences today... so I come with less than a perfect record.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man [or woman] sows, that will he [she] also reap.

Elizabeth Geore writes: "As I considered the principle of sowing and reaping, I realized that, in a general way, what I put into my children on a daily basis ~~~ the seeds of patience or impatience, faith or lack of faith, kindness or selfishness ~~~ would be what I might gain back in years to come."

After reading that afresh, I thought about the things I had sown in my children back when they were young... and what I am reaping as a result [both in family relations and in spiritual terms].
So I ask myself today, as I ask you here... What are we sowing into our husband's lives, children's lives and even the lives of others in which God has given us a realm of influence? Because I did not always sow the desirable things of God in my past ~ it is my goal now to sow life ~ speaking life into my children, grandchildren, and others around me. If LIFE = Jesus Christ ~ what are you sowing that might reap great benefits for His glory and kingdom purposes?
Are we sowing?

• strife and discord >>>>>>>>>> to later reap havoc
• selfishness of 'me first' >>>>>> to later reap lonely lives
• exclusion of others >>>>>>>>>to later reap ~ us being excluded
• mediocrity >>>>>>>>>>>>>> to later reap discontent & unfulfillment
• unforgiveness >>>>>>>>>>>> to later reap the death of relationships

OR are we sowing?

• kindness and unity >>>>>>> >> to later reap peace and harmony
• unselfishness of others first>>>>to later reap others helping us when we need it most
• inclusion of others>>>>>>>>>> to later reap being included by all
• life giving purpose >>>>>>>>>>to later reap untold blessings of God
• forgiveness >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>to later reap a home in heaven with God

Everything in life and in God's Holy Word has its root in sowing and reaping. What can you share about something you have sown into your children or grandchildren in which you are reaping great blessings even now? Your answer might help someone reading this, to 'sow' what God desires as they ponder what they might 'reap' as a result.

Let us SOW to the glory of God >>> that we may REAP to the glory of God!

Choosing JOY,