What are You Sowing?

Dead grass covers the ground, trees are bare, the sky is gray and life seems a bit drab in January. The evergreens keep us sane while the rest of the world seems lifeless.

But just because everything looks bleak does not mean that it is. The ground holds many seeds, the trees are very alive, and all is just waiting for Spring so that leaves and buds can burst forth and make that life evident to the watching world.

Life can be hard as a mom. You tend to the soil in your children’s life and toil endlessly and sometimes it feels like you are stuck in winter. The only problem is, you may not think of it as winter at the moment, just barrenness and deadness.

It’s funny how tangible, visible things can be so motivating. The things that matter least sometimes become the things we end up measuring ourselves by because we can  see them. It’s funny how I can feel like such a failure as a mom and wife if my house is dirty– yet what if the reason for the dirty house is not negligence but endless tending to needy souls? It’s amazing how fast the house can be cleaned at any time, but sometimes you can miss the moment someone is open and ready to lay their soul bare to you and cry out for help. I hope I don’t miss that moment because I am doing dishes.

Don’t get me wrong– an orderly home is a wonderful ministry to my family, and one for which I strive. But let me never be so focused on the tangible that I miss the intangible.

One day last week I was discouraged by some of the tangibles in my life. As I opened God’s word that day, Matthew 13:31-32 was just the encouragement I needed:

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

No one can see the mustard seed buried in the ground, but that doesn’t mean it is not there. Maybe it seems silly to spend time planting, watering, tending to something that is unseen– but it is not. The Bible also teaches, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7)

So, Moms, don’t be discouraged. Don’t think what you do to encourage, train, and equip your children every day does not matter. You may not be able to see the seed buried in the ground, but that does not mean it does not need to be tended. Do not lose heart!

Satan would like you to measure your life based only on the visible. Does your home look like a Pinterest board? Could your muffins be featured on the Food Network? That’s great– but don’t get so caught up in those things that you neglect the seed. There aren’t many people waiting to applaud you for being a good mother, and that is what makes it so hard. You will get likes on Facebook for cute pictures of your kids, your mom friends will be amazed at how you can keep your home so well organized, but  no one sees you water the seed every day, so no one is there to cheer you on as you do it.

Yet in the end, you will reap what you sow. So please do not grow weary. Please do not lose heart. When Spring comes, your heart will be glad as you enjoy watching God grow his kingdom around you. All the applause you did not hear before will be made up one day when you hear your Father say, “Well done!”

Love Does Not Envy or Boast

When I think of this verse, I can’t help but be reminded of my blog post, “Christian Mommy, Break Out of the Comparison Trap.” Truly that is what not envying or boasting is about, isn’t it? Comparing ourselves to one another and seeing how we measure up.

But love is not about how we look at all. Love is other concerned.

Matthew Henry comments on this passage:

(Love) is not grieved at the good of others; neither at their gifts nor at their good qualities, their honours not their estates. If we love our neighbour we shall be so far from envying his welfare, or being displeased with it, that we shall share in it and rejoice at it. His bliss and sanctification will be an addition to ours, instead of impairing or lessening it. This is the proper effect of kindness and benevolence: envy is the effect of ill-will. The prosperity of those to whom we wish well can never grieve us; and the mind which is bent on doing good to all can never wish ill to any.

Isn’t this the opposite of what the world teaches? The world teaches to focus on making ourselves look good to the rest of the world. God teaches to love others and want them to be better than they are. To want to see sinners restored to the sinless beauty of God’s creation before the fall. The world would have us be proud for looking like a “winner.” God would have us delight to see His entire creation as it ought to be, and that means being glad when we see others growing and doing well.

If this is our goal we will not envy, but we also will not boast. Because we will not be comparing ourselves to one another at all. Love is not focused on myself, so how can I boast? Love is focused on God and others, and if attention is brought on us by someone somehow while our eyes are on God, then certainly we will not have room to boast because we will know that we are His creatures, made for His glory, and that any good thing done in our lives was done by Him.

Our struggle in this area of love as in so many others comes when we take our gaze off of Jesus, and move them back to ourselves. If we keep our eyes on Jesus, we have no room to boast, but only to worship our savior and delight in what he has done for us and has done for others.