{"id":962,"date":"2012-09-07T10:29:46","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T14:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/school\/?p=962"},"modified":"2014-07-21T11:08:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T15:08:22","slug":"growing-on-to-maturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/school\/growing-on-to-maturity\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing on to Maturity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, two things went terribly wrong with many crops:\u00a0 a late freeze\u00a0followed by\u00a0a drought.\u00a0 Two extremes, about as far apart as can be imagined, had the same effect–little or no “fruit.”\u00a0 The first event explains why\u00a0my family\u00a0had ONE–yes, one–apple on our tree, and only five peaches.\u00a0 We had even tried to\u00a0protect the branches.\u00a0 We divided up our one apple and each ate a couple slices.\u00a0 Throughout the summer, the drought decimated farm crops in this area.\u00a0 Corn and soybean yields in other parts of the country\u00a0fared even worse.\u00a0 It is not hard to make several important connections between these situations and our own lives.<\/p>\n

The Good Side of Sowing and Reaping<\/h2>\n

In Scripture, Jesus sometimes used the cycle of sowing, cultivating, and harvesting to illustrate Biblical principles.\u00a0 The apostles carried this on through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.\u00a0 I love the twin\u00a0promises in Galatians 6:7-10.\u00a0 There is a promise that warns and there is a promise that encourages.\u00a0 Sometimes we focus only on the warning–“the one who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption . . .”\u00a0 There truly does need to be meditation on and application of that principle.\u00a0 There is a positive promise, as well:\u00a0 ” . . . but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”\u00a0 Also, “. . . for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”<\/p>\n

So, How Do We Get There from Here?<\/em><\/h2>\n

Let me assure you, no one is contemplating giving up!\u00a0 We’ve only been in school for a brief\u00a0and exciting three weeks, for goodness sake.\u00a0 But, what do we all need to be doing now so that at the end of this year’s (or many years’) work, we will all be able to\u00a0harvest good things?\u00a0 Here are several key factors:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Teach and live out the gospel.\u00a0 Make sure what’s on the inside is capable of producing good fruit.\u00a0 Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.”\u00a0 None of us is good before God.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone must receive a new nature, a new heart, through “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21)<\/li>\n
  2. Sow to the Spirit and walk by the Spirit every day through prayer and through learning and obeying God’s revealed will in the Scriptures.\u00a0 Neglect of\u00a0this, and neglect of regular fellowship with a local, Bible-believing church, is a self-imposed drought.<\/li>\n
  3. Establish good patterns of responsibility, hard work,\u00a0striving for goals, and love for others among our children. It is said that practice makes permanent, so help them practice good habits.<\/li>\n
  4. Do the right thing because it is right, even if the good results we hope for are not yet in sight.<\/li>\n
  5. Cultivate thankfulness by leading our children to think on it and express it.<\/li>\n
  6. Communicate with the appropriate persons in a Biblical and timely fashion to address problems.\u00a0 Gossip is a “late freeze” that kills fruit before it has hardly even begun to grow!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let’s look forward with joy together to each harvest!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This year, two things went terribly wrong with many crops:\u00a0 a late freeze\u00a0followed by\u00a0a drought.\u00a0 Two extremes, about as far apart as can be imagined, had the same effect–little or no “fruit.”\u00a0 The first event explains why\u00a0my family\u00a0had ONE–yes, one–apple on our tree, and only five peaches.\u00a0 We had even tried to\u00a0protect the branches.\u00a0 We… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[265,4215,258,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGrowing on to Maturity - Faith Christian School Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/school\/growing-on-to-maturity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing on to Maturity - 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