But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6

A while back, I had a friend who was planting her first garden. She proudly posted on social media that she and her husband had planted 200+ tomato plants. My mouth fell open in shock. What in the world were they going to do with 200 tomato plants worth of tomatoes? I couldn’t imagine how they could possibly harvest and preserve that amount of produce. That same summer, I planted a couple of squash plants thinking that would be plenty. During the period it took for the plants to grow, I found several squash recipes that I liked, but I didn’t have enough squash to make all of them. I hadn’t prepared to need that much squash. My friend, probably had tomatoes to eat, tomatoes to can, and even many tomatoes to give away. I, on the other hand, didn’t even have enough to meet my own needs.

What’s the lesson in this analogy? Because I didn’t feel like I needed many squash, I didn’t put much effort into growing them. Turns out I could have used many more. Putting in a few more squash plants wouldn’t have added to my time commitment very much at all, but it would have added to my harvest exponentially. I could have given excess squash away to friends.

My generation and beyond has gotten away from making the church the center of their life, and I get it… we’re busy. I was busy when my kids were teens, and I made some missteps that I’m working very hard to correct. I’ve apologized to my kids, and they are getting the benefit of seeing me own my mistakes and correct my behavior. I would give anything, if I had come to this realization earlier, but right now this is the best I can do. I started out right with my boys. I wanted God to be real to them, and for that relationship to be important to them, but sometime around their teen years, I got busy, and even though I was there every Sunday, my relationship with Christ was not where it should be, attendance for some of the other services slipped, and the importance of the church’s role in our lives faltered. I wish I had planted more seeds of faith in their lives.

I was fortunate that God used a friend to wake me up out of my sleep. Here’s the thing: Maybe you’re asleep… What do you want out of your relationship with God? With your relationship with your church family? I can guarantee one thing: you always get more out of it that you put in, but imagine the difference if you put in just a little more effort. You may feel comfortable with where your relationship with Christ is, but I beg you to consider a few more things:

How would you compare your relationship now to the day of your salvation? When I thought about that, I remembered feeling so happy and so free and so LOVED the day I was saved. I wanted to go back to that. And the good news is, you can! You can renew your relationship with Christ and build on it. As adults we carry a lot of stuff on our shoulders, but we have a friend in Jesus who is ready and willing to take that load, if we’ll just let go of it and give it to Him. We read, “take up your cross and follow me daily” or “submit yourself” or even “surrender” and we think that somehow that’s going to take even more work than what we’re already doing and we feel like we’re doing everything that we can possibly do, so how can we take on any more? But the reality of surrender is the complete opposite of that. There is a lightness and happiness that comes with total surrender that is impossible to describe.

Do you want more blessings in your life? Well, duh? Would anybody say no to more blessings? What if you’re not only missing out on blessings, but your actually taking blessings away from other people? I’ll use Wednesday nights in this scenario. Wednesday nights, at my church, are Bible study nights. We get to “talk back” or share our opinion, in an open discussion of whatever topic is on the agenda for that night. I enjoy hearing my brothers’ and sisters’ thoughts on the subject. I am even becoming a little more confident in sharing my thoughts. I love to answer questions that have a definite answer, but sharing my opinions has been hard until lately. What if your opinions make a huge difference for some struggling brother or sister? What if your life experiences could help someone else in their walk… and you don’t go because you don’t feel like it’s something you need. We’re all at different places, and that’s the awesome thing about the church and how God set it up. Each church body is a single unit, made up of many individuals, designed to work perfectly, if every part is doing its job.

We don’t get the luxury of wanting more and more from life without putting some in. And that applies to all areas of life. But, when we consider giving of ourselves to the Lord, we’re promised an exponential return. Why would we ever sow sparingly with Him?