Boy, did I have an experience with a fearless 3-year-old that I’ll never forget! Hearing a child excitedly say, “Look teacher,” I turned my head to come nose to snout with a lizard!
While the child proudly held it, my thoughts screamed, “Get that lizard out of here!” I guess you can tell that lizards aren’t my favorite creatures.
As the child’s teacher, I knew that I couldn’t say what I was thinking. So, I swallowed my screams and with a great deal of effort gritted my teeth responding, “Oh, a lizard. Why don’t we let him loose over by the fence.”
What if I had screamed,
“Get that lizard out of here”?
Chaos! Fear! Crying! Not just from me, but from the whole class of 3-year-olds.
What about the poor child with the lizard? They would have dropped that lizard like a hot potato and never touched another lizard again! Which may not have been such a bad thing unless God intended them to become a herpetologist or veterinarian.
If I had spoken fearful words, I could have planted seeds of fear in all those children.
WHAT WE SAY HAS POWER!
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21 NIV
Our words plants seeds.
These seeds grow in our hearts and minds producing fruit which impacts our mental, emotional, spiritual and even our physical health.1
WHAT TYPES OF SEEDS DO WE PLANT? 2
1. WEED SEEDS
Negative words are weed seeds invading our joy and peace.
They produce fear, rejection, hatred, depression and even disease. Their fruit chokes out the desirable seeds in our hearts and minds, (Proverbs 12:18).
2. GOOD SEEDS
Good seeds are words of positivity, love and care.
They blossom reproducing fruit of the same positivity, love and care that we planted with our words, (Proverbs 12:14).
3. FAITH SEEDS
Faith seeds are God’s Words of love, encouragement and hopefulness.
They grow faith producing the lifegiving fruit of the Spirit in us.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control,
Galatians 5:22-23a ESV
WHAT DO WE SAY THAT PLANTS SEEDS?
Check out these examples.
Good seeds blossom into good fruit,
but faith seeds
are lifegiving.
My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh,
Proverbs 4:20-22
Because God loves us,
He wants to grow His lifegiving words within us.
SO, LET’S PLANT FAITH SEEDS!
HOW?
IDENTIFY!
What’s growing?
Weeds, good fruit or faith fruit? We can identify the kind of seeds our words are planting by seeing the fruit produced in ourselves and others.
REPLACE PLANTS!
Weeds! Did you find some?
Pull them up and toss them out! Now, let’s replace those weeds by planting faith seeds using God’s Word.
What if we’ve planted weeds in others? Although we can’t pull out those weeds, asking forgiveness and planting new faith seeds acts like spraying weed killer.
PLANT INTENTIONALLY!
Do we plant weeds in our gardens?
No! So, why would we plant them in our hearts and minds? Let’s intentionally choose to plant faith seeds by speaking words of the Lord’s love, hope and encouragement. We can quote or paraphrase scripture or even use a scriptural concept like encouraging someone to find things to be thankful for.
NOURISH THE SEEDS!
Whatever we nourish grows, right?
Let’s nourish faith seeds through our relationship with the Lord, prayer, scripture and fellowship. Selecting uplifting music, reading materials or media can help as well. Our actions plant faith seeds in others too!
FIND A GARDEN!
Surrounding ourselves with faith filled people is like planting ourselves in a garden of lifegiving fruit. By their love, encouragement and support our faith seeds are nourished producing lifegiving fruit within us.
REFLECTION
What kinds of seeds are you growing?
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, as I write Galatians 5: 22-23 and say it aloud, help me to recognize the kinds of seeds I have been growing and cast out any weeds. Guide me to plant and grow lifegiving fruit seeds within myself and others. In Jesus name. Amen.
PLANT FAITH SEEDS
Comment!
*For information on making Jesus Christ your Savior, email me or visit, http://www.peacewithgod.net/
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1 psychcentral.com
2 Faith & Words- WHAT ARE WE BAKING? – DianeLese
Photo lizard, Sofia
Photo child, Filip Urban
Photo blueberries, Redstone
Photo cat, Nab
