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So You Want to Receive a Blessing?-by Heidi McLaughlin

Posted: August 30, 2020

It was time for me to grab my gardening gloves, water bottle and hat and give back to my church and community.  My beloved home church, Trinity Church Kelowna, was gifted 23 acres of land that has been transformed into magnificent vegetable gardens to supply food for our Food Bank and many other organizations. Volunteers do most of the immense work and I knew it was time for me giddy-up and get out there to help.

Giddy-up and get out there.

Yes I was on my knees for almost two hours, and it’s tedious work, but when I was done I felt satisfied and fulfilled.  I wanted to be a blessing but a double portion of blessing came back to me.  Here’s what happened: I “got to” spend almost two hours with a friend, across from each other picking tomatoes and having the most delightful conversations. As we finished, we were given a paper bag and told we could fill it with some of those lovely, fresh tomatoes we just picked. If that wasn’t enough, we were asked: “Would you like to take home a melon or cantaloupe. Or perhaps a watermelon?” On the way back to the car a table was set up with baking to delight the soul. I sat back in my car and thought: Wow, I’m blown away. Today I came to be a blessing but I got back a DOUBLE blessing.  

But that is how God operates. The Bible tells us that  “we reap what we sow” (Galatians 6:7) and when we sow a blessing, God reaps it back to us. Sometimes even double. Whatever we sow we reap; it’s a spiritual law. In several places in the Bible talks about pouring out a double blessing, and it’s explained beautifully in Mark Batterson’s book, DOUBLE BLESSING. But sowing blessings costs. It costs our time, our humility and our obedience to God.

Sowing blessings costs.

• If we want friends, we have to sow time for friendships.
• If we want a good marriage, we have to sow understanding and kindness.
• If we want peace and freedom, we have to sow forgiveness.
• If we want to fulfill our God-given purpose, we have to sow sacrificially with our God-given gifts and time.
• If we don’t want to be lonely, we have to sow deliberate steps to engage with people.

If we want joy, we have to sow thankfulness.

We might want to ask ourselves, If I’m angry, lonely, feeling sorry for myself, unhappy, what kind of seeds am I sowing? We would love to blame this on other people but it’s up to you and me. “What kind of seed am I sowing?  It will reap either today (like mine did), or next week or year.  God will always reap it at just the right time. When you need it. You might even want to call it: “What goes around comes around.”

You know what kind of seeds you need to sow right now, are you going to do it?

 

 

Posted in: alone, anger, blessings, community gardens, Expectations, Forgiveness, Freedom, fresh joy, friends, happy, joy, marriage, Overcoming Struggles, sowing and reaping, thankful, what goes around comes around