Have you ever sown a seed without seeing a harvest?
Did you get discouraged and ask yourself, “What’s the point?”

There are seeds sown in the ground… and seeds sown in hearts.
And it can be discouraging when you don’t see fruit.

But do not stop sowing,  because you never know when there will be fruit.

It was Valentine’s Day 1997. I was stationed at my first duty station at Beale Air Force Base in California. There was a young woman in the dorms who had decorated her door for Valentine’s Day. It was peculiar, it was different.

She had written out 1 Corinthians 13:
“Love is patient, love is kind…”

And next to it, John 3:16.

At the time, I had no idea how those related, but I was intrigued.

What she had written on her door was reinforced by the way she lived. She was set apart. She was from Oklahoma and she reminded me of Annie Oakley, a sharp shooter, strong outdoors, yet still feminine and classy.

She didn’t preach at me. She simply lived her faith.

She was a letter I was reading that sowed seeds on a hardened heart

I remembered those words two years later. When I got married in 1999, I made sure 1 Corinthians 13 was read at the ceremony because it sounded beautiful.

But it wasn’t until twelve years later that those words penetrated my heart.

I realized:

• God’s greatest commandment is to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
• I re-read the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13 and saw that I was none of those things.
• I cried out, “God, HOW can I love You the way You are commanding me to love?”

That’s when I met Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, giving me access to God the Father by one Spirit.

Jesus is THE WAY I could love the way I was commanded to love.

A sprout of faith popped up in February 2009… and it has been growing ever since.

To that young lady, who was simply loving her Savior and carrying His fragrance,  thank you. You were a vessel of mercy and grace. You sowed many seeds… and it only took one.

God said it best:

“Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether one or the other will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.”  Ecclesiastes 11:6

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.”  Galatians 6:9

Happy Valentine’s Day. Keep sowing….