A Little Or A Lot

Brothers and sisters: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.   2 Corinthians 9:

As a teacher, I know there are some things kids enjoy.  No matter what the age, glitter glue, paint and wet glue are always met with enthusiasm.  The hesitation on my part is the inability of most of the students to comprehend the concept of “use just a little”.  When I moved from little lovelies to middle lovelies, I thought they would get it; not so much! I still get projects that weigh 3 pounds and take 4 days to dry!  It seems if a little glitter or paint is good, then a lot makes the project awesome! I suppose it’s later in life when we realize that very often a little can go a long way!  Just like the kids and their glitter glue, we adults can sometimes go overboard on things and loose track of the concept “enough”. We are a society that likes our “stuff” aren't we. 

As I was looking at the insane number of cucumbers in my garden the other day, I thought of this verse from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  In the spring we dumped jut a few extra seeds in that little hole just to make sure we would get a nice amount of cucumbers.  Sheesh…is seems we sowed bountifully and now the reaping from that one plant is crazy!  As I was cleaning and planning what in the world to do with all these green little beauties, I began to think of the places we could use more bountiful sowing and reaping.  I’ve decided these are some places we could benefit from sowing as abundantly as school kid with a fresh bottle of glitter glue!

• Daily prayer…the more minutes we give him, the more grace he gives us.
• Patience…the more we demonstrate it, the more peaceful we become.
• Generosity…the more we share the more we are blessed.
• Love & Mercy…the more we offer it to others, the less we judge others.
• Humility…the more we put the needs of others before the needs of ourselves, the more we grow in kindness and compassion.
• Gratitude…the more thankful we are, the less jealous  we are.
• Cheerfulness…the world doesn’t need more grumpy; it doesn't make anything better!
• Stillness…perpetual motion isn’t good for our body or our soul.
• Contentment…the more content we become with who we are and with the things we have, the less we compare and less comparison leads to less greed.

If we made a conscientious effort to sow each of those things more bountifully in our life, the bounty we would reap could change our life, our family and our community.  Just like a big bucket of cucumbers or a 4 pound art project, managing the bounty might take some time and effort but the results will be so worth it!

A Seed To Plant:  As you sit in quiet prayer this week, think about the areas of your life where you have sowed sparingly and the places you can bump up the sowing and then ask the Father to bless you with his abundant bounty.​

Blessings on your day!