Seeds of Wisdom

It's time to begin sowing seed for this year's future harvest. The motivational life-application lessons found in a tiny seed are enormous! The life of a seed has close similarities to the life of a human and the seeds we plant in our personal lives. The ultimate reward for most gardeners is the harvest, which means the bloom. Gardeners know that once a plant begins to bloom, it’s at its peak and in full splendor. Gardeners cultivate many plants primarily for their flowers, but to botanists, a flower bloom is simply a plant’s reproductive unit. Note that while many people admire blooms for their beauty; first and foremost, a plant’s sole purpose in life is to produce seed in order to leave its legacy, its offspring. A plant grows, then it blooms; the blooms produce the fruit; the fruit produces seed; the seed sprouts; and the legacy goes on and on. Sound familiar? The entire purpose for humans is to grow, thrive, and bloom, in order to produce fruit that will manifest seed to leave a legacy.

1. Sowing Seed Requires Getting Dirty

One thing obvious about seed is that it doesn’t grow unless you plant it in the dirt; it won’t grow anywhere else. You can’t plant it in the air, or on cloud nine, it must have contact with the soil; and you must do the dirty work. Sowing seed and planting can be a lot of fun, but it does require some hard work on your part. A gardener must pursue the responsibility such as cultivating the soil and sowing the seed. After those efforts are completed, they must wait patiently for the seed to sprout. Although gardeners work the soil, sow seed, and fertilize, they know that in the end they are utterly dependent on Mother nature, God, to make anything grow. The gardener can’t cause the seed to germinate, nor can they produce the oxygen, rain, or sunshine that makes the seed sprout. For a successful harvest, they must ultimately rely on Mother nature, God. The one who plants must do their part, and then nature will take over. Nature won’t do what we can do, and we can’t do what nature does. God Won’t Grow What You Don’t Sow. We must get our hands dirty creating and pursing our plans and dreams; they won’t grow on their own. It takes blood, sweat, and tears to do our part; and then, let nature take its course.

2. The Size of a Seed is Insignificant

Seeds come in a variety of sizes. Bulbs are seeds, as well as, corn kernels, beans and peas. Some seeds, such as orchid seeds, are as tiny as a grain of salt, and others are as large as a coconut. According to World Book Encyclopedia, coconut trees produce seeds that weigh up to fifty pounds. (1) Yet orchid seeds are so tiny that several hundred thousand of them weigh no more than a single ounce. A small plant can yield a global harvest. What small seed should you be planting in your life today that you have been procrastinating on? It may be going back to school, starting a new business, losing weight, writing a book, starting a family, or even something as small getting your hair cut. It doesn’t matter how large or small the seed seems to be, start planting.The size of a seed has no relationship to the size of plant that develops from it. A handful of tiny seeds have the potential to feed an entire generation. Start small; the little things you begin to do today will grow, thrive, and eventually bloom.

3. Seeds don’t sprout until it’s the right time

Seeds can remain dormant for different periods of time yet they are still able to germinate under proper conditions. It’s been reported that scientists found dormant 10,000-year-old lotus seeds that could germinate when conditions were favorable for growth. (2) Germination of a seed can take just days for some seeds, and years for others.Most perennial seeds don’t germinate immediately. They can remain dormant for different periods of time yet they are still able to germinate under proper conditions. Some seeds germinate within days, others take several weeks, and a large number of seeds, like perennial seeds and bulbs, require what is called stratification, which means they must go through cold conditions. Some of our efforts, the seeds we plant in our lives, don’t always grow when we want and expect them to. When the time and the environment are right, things will take off.

4. A seed doesn’t always sprout where it was planted

There are times when the gardener will sow a seed in one place, but the plant sprouts in another location because either the roots have moved it or the weather and conditions have shifted the seed. Gardeners don’t always know where a seed may sprout, just as people don’t always understand how or where their efforts will take shape in their personal lives. Be assured, the positive seeds you sow today will produce a harvest somewhere; sometimes you’ll never see it.

5. Death is the beginning of life for a seed

When seeds are given the right environment, which includes the right amount of water, oxygen and temperatures; the seed will germinate. The seed absorbs water; the water softens the seed coat and causes a chemical change inside the seed. Once the seed falls into fertile ground, the outer shell begins to open as it dies; and inside the dead shell, new life awaits. Once the seed coat breaks, the seed begins to germinate by growing down into the soil and developing a primary root. Then, in the right conditions, the new growth will begin to emerge, and more roots develop to anchor the seed, absorb minerals, and send water the seedling; which in turn, enables it to grow. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds. Similar to the life of a seed; sometimes humans must lay aside or “put to death” bad habits and practices that hinder us from growing and becoming more successful.

6. The Harvest

After all of the hard work that went into planning the garden, cultivating the soil, sowing seed, fertilizing, watering, weeding, and then waiting—at last; it’s time to reap a harvest from the labor!

One gains a wonderful sense of pride when it's time to harvest. Life is a process of sowing seed and reaping a harvest. Since everyone will reap a harvest from what they’ve once sown, it should remind everyone to be extremely careful how they sow each day. A harvest not only pertains to sowing seed and planting for a future yield of crops; but it can also be considered the consequence or result of any action. Today’s words, thoughts, and actions have the potential to affect tomorrow’s harvest, and the harvest for years to come.

Apply these seeds of success and you’ll produce a future harvest, as well as, leave a legacy.

Reference:

1. William A. DiMichele, “Seed,” World Book Online Reference Center. World Book, Inc., 20 Apr. 2004. <http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wb/Article?id=ar499880>.

2. DiMichele, “Seed,” 10 Apr. 2004.

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