How long have you been planting spiritual seeds in the soil, watching your crops grow, hoping the harvest will be good? As a farmer’s wife, I see all my husband’s hard work to prepare the ground, plant the seeds, deal with weeds and pests, and then – wait. This time of year might be the most challenging for him, waiting in the final days before the combine starts bringing it all in. Will his investment be worth it? We pray, covering the crops in a blanket of blessings, asking God to protect it and make it fruitful.
Are you praying for your harvest? Wondering if it will ever come?
I’ve been praying for a spiritual harvest after many years of planting and waiting. It seems like I’m in the final days before it’s ready, having trouble sitting still, wondering, praying no hail comes to damage it, wishing I’d done more to prevent weeds. Did I make a good investment?
Here’s the thing God keeps reminding me of recently: harvest is hard work. Gardeners don’t just pick all the food they’ve grown, eat it, then sit around with their bellies full. The fruit trees on our farm grow heavy with ripe fruit, but we don’t just harvest it and let it sit. We have to tend to it after we bring it in, cleaning it, cooking with it, and preserving the excess. Harvest is hard work!
When the apples were ready, my mother-in-law helped me and the kids make apple sauce. When the peaches were ready, we had 13 gallons from one tree! There are women around here who have several trees and all they do for a week is peaches. I had the kids help me, thinking it’d take a morning. Nope. It was a 2-day process which only ended then because a friend came over to help. We peeled, pitted, and sliced peaches to freeze for two whole days. Now, we have enough peaches preserved to last us a long time if we’re careful, but it was a lot of work.
Before the peaches were quite done, the pear trees were ready to be harvested! We made pear sauce (like apple sauce) with them, which kept my mother-in-law and I busy for another day. Meanwhile, tomatoes have been ripening quickly, which means they need to be canned or made into sauce, salsa, or juice and preserved. Don’t forget the herbs, grapes, and peas! The potatoes aren’t far behind, either.
When I moved to “the big house” on the farm, I became the main person responsible for our gardens and fruit trees. My mother-in-law and the children help, thankfully. It has been and is a lot of work. In all of the work, I heard the Lord whispering, “Enjoy this season of spiritual rest. The harvest that’s coming will require a lot of hard work.”
How much more do souls matter than peaches and tomatoes? So, after years of spiritual planting, watering, weeding, and growing, I’ve decided to use this time of waiting to get stronger so I can handle the work of harvest. A popular author/speaker/minister I follow recently shared on a podcast that she stays in top physical condition so she can travel and give of herself the way she does. She said most people aren’t physically capable of what she does, and she regularly disrupts her comfort to keep her body strong and healthy. What a challenge!
The harvest will come in, whether we’re prepared for the work or not.
Evaluate yourself. Where are you strong and where are you weak? Make a plan to strengthen the weak areas so you can be ready for the hard work to come. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, but I’m physically weak. Even though I’m so much stronger than I was just 18 months ago, I have a lot of room for improvement. I’ve been adding in one healthy habit every week, which has the added benefit of leaving a lot less time and attention for the unhealthy habits.
What can you add into your lifestyle, a little at a time, while you wait for your harvest to come in? Is it time to work on your mental health, adding in a visit to a counselor/therapist? Is it time to work on your emotional health, adding in time to journal and reflect upon how you feel so you can process those difficult memories? Is it time to work on your spiritual health, rejecting lukewarm faith and going all-in with Christ?
Whatever it is, the harvest is coming and as the laborers, we need to get ourselves prepared. While the work itself will naturally strengthen us, how much better will harvest go if we’re ready for it? I’d like to hear from you. Will you join me in pinpointing your weaknesses and adding in productive/healthy habits to get stronger?
Love,
Kimberly
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