SOWING SEEDS OF KINDNESS

SOWING SEEDS OF KINDNESS!

Eccl 11:1 & 6

11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

6 In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

           There is an old hymn written in the 1800’s by Knowles Shaw that is appropriate here.

Bringing in the Sheaves

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Adam Clarke, in his commentary, says that verse 1 is an allusion to planting rice seed in the flooded fields. The rice is trampled into the mud by the feet of cattle. The entire process appears to be a waste of good rice but by and by there is a harvest.

A farmer goes to market to purchase grain. He puts the bags containing it into his wagon, and drives slowly home. As the wagon jolts over the stony road, one of the bags becomes untied, and the grain is scattered along the way. The birds catch some of the grain and fly off with it, and drop it in distant places. Some is blown in different directions by the winds. Thus the farmer goes on for miles, without knowing what he is doing; but the next summer finds the scattered seed. It starts and grows, and when he sees his own grain he does not know it. He did not even know that he lost it. And so it is with good deeds. Men often perform them unconsciously, and they bear fruit, and when they see that fruit they do not know that it is the result of anything they have done. —Beecher

(from Practical Bible Illustrations from Yesterday and Today Copyright © 1996, 1998 by AMG International, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.)

The act of goodness or kindness that you do today may seem unimportant but there is life in the seeds. Carried and scattered and multiplied, goodness grows and bears even more kindness. At the beginning of every day determine to plant a seed of goodness, continue this throughout the day till evening and then let God decide the results.

Gal 6:9

9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Dear Lord, today I am determined to sow seeds of kindness and goodness. May the harvest be plentiful. AMEN