[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Monday, September 15, 2014

[Sheila Leigland]

nice article and you will like windows seven I thaink.
On 9/15/2014 1:17 PM, Paul via Faith-talk wrote:
> Hello and good day to you all on this 15th or 16th day of September, depending on when you read this message.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you are all doing well.
>
> This is just a heads-up for those of you who read and enjoy these messages.  Sometime this week I'm going to call my local computer specialist Bill to see when he can find the time to transfer files from this computer to my new Windows 7 machine, which is an HP one.  Because of this and the fact that I'll have to learn my way around Windows 7, there may be a delay in sending out the messages.  Of course (and I hope this is the case with God guiding me), things just might go smoother than I think.  I also have to determine whether I want to go Windows Live Mail or coordinate my emails with System Access.  Don't worry, moderators, if at all possible I'm keeping my same email address.
>
> Enough of that for now.  Let's get to the article for today, again by an author whose name is not given.  The title of this piece is "So, How Do You Sow?" which is rendered as follows:
>
> I have one of those screensavers on my computer that cycles through a variety of scenic vistas every few seconds.  One day, when inspiration and motivation were particularly sparse, I sat staring at the screen, mesmerized by the beautiful scenery.  Waving palms melted into tumbling surf, waterfalls splashed into pools that morphed into majestic mountains, and rippling streams flowed into fields of wheat, undulating in the summer wind.
>
> It was the fields of wheat that brought to mind the verse from Paul's second letter to the believers at corinth:  "But this I say, He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6).  The wheat fields on my computer screen looked like they extended for miles.  I began to wonder about the little seeds, millions of them, that must have been sown in the fertile soil of some Midwestern plain and about the farmers who planted them.  Was that what Paul had envisioned as he penned his words? I suspect not, because the context of this verse has to do with giving and good works, not with agriculture.  But it got me thinking about other kinds of sowing and harvests, and I'm pretty sure that's what Paul intended.
>
> I began to look around at some of the planters in my community and at the harvests they are yielding.  The school where I teach was planted over 135 years ago by a Hawaiian queen with a vision for educating young women.  Since the initial sowing of Queen Emma's dream, generations of daughters have earned degrees from St. Andrew's Priory and gone on to serve as leaders in every field imaginable.
>
> Another aspect of my life influenced by a planter is the area where I live; it was a tropical jungle only 45 years ago.  Then a wealthy developer named Henry Kaiser--who combined his two passions to create a new word, _imagineering--designed and built a planned community with ponds, canals, and homes for thousands of families.  His generously planted seeds grew into Hawaii Kai, a thriving suburb 12 miles east of Honolulu.
>
> The more I looked, the more I found.  There are generous sowers all around me.  A best friend is the children's director at our church.  Every week she leads a team of teachers who plant seeds of faith and encouragement in the lives of their young students.  A colleague tutors young women who are incarcerated, planting seeds of hope for a more productive future.  A retired executive works tirelessly to acquire resources to build housing and clinics for the homeless.  A young couple spends their vacation planting vegetable gardens in the poorest shantytowns of South Africa.  Harvests are springing up everywhere.
>
> And then I discovered something about that verse of Paul's I had never seen before:  We are all sowers.  He doesn't say some are sowers and some are not.  He says some sow sparingly and some sow generously.  We're all planting every day!
>
> The choice then becomes one of deciding the kind of harvest we want to produce.  If I want to leave a legacy that perpetuates blessing, I need to be generously planting seeds of faith and joy, of encouragement and hope every day.  Seeds of negativity, criticism, anger or worry only lead to scrawny weeds of discouragement.
>
> Thinking of myself as a sower gives me a new perspective on my everyday encounters.  There is fertile soil all around, people ready to receive a word or a smile, planted with kindness and watered with loving patience.  We each have the exciting and challenging opportunity to become a partner with God, who prepares the soil and superintends the harvest.  Then together we can enjoy the fruitfulness of His grace.  It doesn't matter if we are royalty, millionaires, teachers, executives, or homemakers.  I now realize that whatever we are, we are all sowers.  Each day, the fields await us, prepared and ready.  So, how do you sow?
>
> Dear Lord of the harvest, please help me to be a diligent and joyful planter so that the seeds I sow will produce abundant blessings in the lives I touch every day.  Amen.
>
> And there you have today's article, written obviously by a Hawaiian lady.  I hope it gave you food for thought.
>
> And now until tomorrow when, Lord willing another Daily Thought article and message will be posted, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul
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