The sower - The potato harvest in the northern part of the province has just been completed and it was a wonderful harvest, from what I've been hearing. And it has set my mind to thinking about the sowing/reaping statement that we have all heard, “you reap what you sow, you reap after you sow, and you reap more than you sow.”

My early years were spent on a potato farm. My dad was a farmer. I learned more than I want to or need to know about potato farming, in those early years.

I learned that you reap what you sow; if you plant cobblers, you won’t reap russets. For all you potato lovers, those two names will mean something. Of course, real potato lovers will wander through the produce section searching for russets.

I also learned that you reap after you sow. My dad was a hard worker and, of course, was always anxious in the spring to get the crop in. He knew that there would certainly be no harvest if he did not plant first.

Then, I also learned that we always reap more than what we sow. How fun it was to dig up those potato hills in August (a sneak preview) to see how the crop was doing. We as kids knew that we had just planted one seed and then we would continue digging and digging to see how many potatoes we could find - what the harvest would be - 15 or even 20 small potatoes.

What good lessons are learned as we follow the planting-harvesting process. Over the years, I have run into many people who do not understand the Biblical system of sowing and reaping.

What: Reaping what we sow. We often hear this topic in a negative context and, for sure, we do need to think of it that way. However, we also reap wonderful things as a result of what we sow. We plant integrity and we reap the exact same thing - integrity and respect of others. We sow love and we reap the love of others - not always receiving love from the same people we extend it to, but love nonetheless. And so on, and so on.

After: Sometimes people think they are going to be able to harvest even though they have planted no seed. A simple quote that all of us have heard - to have friends, you have to be one. Also, the one “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Of course, we must face the fact that in God’s system of sowing and reaping, we also reap bad consequences after we sow bad things. For sure, we reap after we sow.

More: What a great hope we have in that we will reap more joy than we sow, and more love than we sow. And on and on it goes.
In Genesis 26:12, “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.” And in 2 Corinthians 9:6, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

On the negative side of sowing and reaping, of course, we also learn through life experiences that we also reap what we sow, after we sow, and more than we sow. Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. There are scriptures which appear to support that some can sow bad seed and seemingly get away with it - but the Bible stresses many times that there is a judgement for our acts or words . . . one day.

So, a word to myself first, to be careful what I sow. I will reap WHAT, AFTER, and MORE than I sow.

Submitted by Naida