Sowing and Reaping

My patience thins with every call of, "Make sure you shut the door!" as my children run in and out of the house on these hot summer days. I call again and again and can't understand why the concept of keeping the door completely closed seems like such a foreign concept to them. So much of parenting feels like it needs to be repeated ad nauseam until it yields any results. (Don't even get me started on how this looks when it comes to potty training.)

But this happens in all areas of our ordinary life, and especially our spiritual lives. Do we have to say these same prayers every day? Does going back to Confession to confess the same sins again make a difference? Does extending grace and forgiveness to people in our lives for the same errors and inconsiderations matter? I can get easily discouraged with how little "progress" I see in my own spiritual life, let alone the frustration I feel when I look at how other people aren't changing enough to suit my expectations. I want instant results, both in my heart and others.

I think the readings today call us to acknowledge that the little choices in our lives do matter; that if we aren't living a well-ordered life, if we aren't choosing love even in the little things, then we are sowing the whirlwind. I think of Christ telling us that the harvest is plentiful meaning that the harvest is ever-present. (Matthew 9:32-38)

We can choose to harvest the grace of the present moment at all times. We simply accept the grace He is giving us in the moment, and then make our choices out of love even when we feel like we've done so a million times before. Our choices and actions matter, and the little things we sow will one day be reaped (at least that's the hope I live in as a teach five children about closing doors and washing hands).

We can choose to harvest the grace of the present moment at all times.Click to tweet

Let's focus on the present moment and accept God's graces as they come to us right now. We can choose to do our dreaded tasks, the things we have to repeat time and time again but with love. Lord Jesus, help us sow love for world.

Christy Isinger is a wife and mom to five lovely, loud children and lives in northern Canada. When not homeschooling, she is a devoted reader of English literature from Jane Austen to Agatha Christie. She writes about the beauty of faith, life, and the home at her blog and is the co-host of the Fountains of Carrots Podcast. You can find out more about her here. She is the author of our Blessed Conversations: The Ten Commandments study found here.