Always a farmer at heart. 🤍
From my earliest days, I remember loving my time outside.
I like to grow things. These days I grow people! 👩🌾
Wow! It’s amazing to look back and see what God instilled in me from the very early days of my life even before I was born - in past generations. 🌱
My Grandpa Stockhoff (pictured below) was a farmer in Kansas.
They moved to Oregon when my mother was in Junior High for greater opportunities “out west.” It occurs to me that the concept of seeking God for greater opportunities to grow was instilled in me at an early age. My Uncle Gene was a farmer, and my mom married a farmer, my dad. I’m a farmer’s daughter!
Whenever I would dig into the rich, fertile soil to hide a seed in the depth of the nutrients of the dirt, it would thrill me. I would find myself thinking of this scripture, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” (Psalm 119:11)
I loved pleasing my father by working alongside him in the harvest. I am so thankful for the concepts I learned watching him farm. Much was hidden in my heart in my youth.
As he planted seeds in my life, I learned to sow into others. It delights me most to please my Heavenly Father by planting encouragement into His people.
2 Corinthians 9:10-11
"He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God."
It’s interesting to think about the variety of processes we find ourselves in along the way of anticipating a harvest. Life is that way. Sometimes we have to till the hard soil. Sometimes we are the one who sows a seed in someone’s life; other times, we water the seed that has been planted. We can do this by speaking our encouragement to the dormant seed that is laying in their life.
Have you ever heard that talking to a plant will help it thrive?! We can literally enhance someone’s growth by fertilizing their life, adding nutrients with our words - by praying with them or sharing a good nugget of truth. Then there are the times we rejoice when we see a person’s life flourish, ripe and ready for the harvest about to take place within them. There’s nothing so satisfying as being able to partake of the good fruits of our labor! 🌽
Little seeds sprout and give way to new life. The tiniest of seeds have great intention. That seed growing in the life of the one it’s planted in is intended to ultimately nourish others. 🪴
The greater the care, the greater the yield. In other words, the more you care about the seeds you plant and nurture them in the lives of God’s people, the greater the blessing!
Do you see the concept here? Sharing Christ is what it’s all about!
I must say, of all, it takes to grow a seed, I think I like watering the best. Yes. That’s it! I’m a waterer. That’s who I am! 💦
Psalm 67:6-7
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear Him!
The farm I grew up on in Dayton, Oregon
Commenti