Remember The Seeds You Planted

Your Thoughts Become Your Words Which Become Your Behavior

“How can my words be used to create my future? How are word seeds planted?” Gracie said. “I just don’t get it.”

Gracie, a woman in her mid-40s, had heard her pastor say the above in one of his sermons. She just couldn’t shake the thought that her words were creating her future.

Seeds planted during childhood

She grew up in a middle-class home in the mid-west, an only child, born to parents in their late 30s. Her mom was a career woman, a nurse, well before it was popular for women to have careers. Her parents owned and managed a nursing home for the elderly and those with serious illnesses who needed continuous care. Her family lived in the basement of the nursing home.

Because her parents worked 18 hours per day caring for the patients, playtime was rarely included in their lives. So Gracie grew up playing and studying in the kitchen of the nursing home or in one of the sitting rooms with the patients. She found the old people’s behavior very curious.

Often, she would sneak into one of the rooms where she couldn’t be seen. She loved to listen to the old guys hitting on the women and the two blind women talking about the old guys, not realizing they were in the room listening and barely constraining their laughter.

A downside to growing up in the nursing home was that everybody was sick. From her study place in the kitchen, she could hear people coughing or groaning with pain. Sickness and death permeated the home. At times when someone was in the process of dying, a hush settled over the whole building.

Not only did Gracie actually walk into a patient’s room and find her dead, but her grandfather had been in a wheelchair since his early 20s, unable to move by himself. Also, her mother had had several severe illnesses but kept working attending to those who were worse.

The harvest from seeds planted

It became second nature for Gracie to groan, complain or rehearse any aches or pains she felt. This continued into her adult years. Her thoughts would then manifest into words about ‘this hurts’ or ‘that hurts’ or ‘do I have a serious problem?’

Her words became seeds that fed a self-perpetuating cycle of more thoughts, words, and eventually, behavior.

As Gracie moved into her 40s, she had more and more physical problems, resulting in numerous surgeries and procedures, which left new problems as a result. For example, the scar tissue around her esophagus from previous surgeries continued to tighten, having to be stretched every six to nine months.

What controls your thoughts?

Think about it. What do you watch on TV or listen to on the radio? How many hours of TV do you watch nightly? What books and magazines do you read?

Gracie had the TV on every night from the time she got home until the time she went to bed. For every hour of TV, she also got, on average, 15 minutes of commercials every hour. Since the TV was playing in her home for about four hours per night, she also got about 60 minutes of commercials.

According to PsychologyToday.com, since the beginning of 2018, 187 commercials for about 70 prescription medications have collectively aired almost half a million times.

The prescription ads describe all the symptoms and problems for each condition and medication, which are aired over and over, demanding your consideration.

These shows and commercials plant thoughts and emotions in your mind. Every time you see them, they reinforce thoughts and/or emotions until they become predominant in your mind. As you allow your mind to ruminate on a problem or a potential sickness, it can manifest in your body.

Thoughts are words planted that become a behavior

Actually, we are all sowing seeds with what we think, then with what we speak. And we will reap what the seeds we sow produce. In a previous article, “Don’t Be Deceived,” I referenced articles that detail how thoughts become words and words become actions or behaviors.

Gracie heard her pastor teach about “Planting the Right Seeds.” She paid attention, taking notes about the scripture references given. She started thinking about Galatians.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7–8, ESV)

She started remembering her childhood in the nursing home and how all the death and sickness had affected her thoughts and her words. She realized that, for years, she had been planting seeds for sickness and she had reaped the harvest of the seeds planted.

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. (Jeremiah 1:9, ESV)

The pastor mentioned “speaking the word.” Gracie had heard about The Prosperity Gospel, where people spoke the Word in an attempt to become prosperous. The pastor said that was a distorted version of speaking God’s Word for a completely selfish outcome. Jeremiah states that God put His Words in our mouths. The Psalms equate the quality of our thoughts and words.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14, ESV)

Seeds planted for a good harvest

Gracie made a list of Bible verses that referred to healing, about how Jesus paid the price for our healing with the stripes that He took on his body before he was crucified. She began meditating on these scriptures, allowing God’s Word to be her thoughts. She also began thanking Jesus for paying the price for her healing.

She stopped having her throat stretched. A few months later she stopped taking all the prescription medicine she had been given. By November, when she had her annual physical, all of her tests were normal without any of the medications. And she had gone for months without her throat stretched with no problems.

Conclusion

Our thoughts can naturally be filled with fear and worry. But when we replace those thoughts with God’s Word, we sow good seeds for a good harvest.

Start planting good seeds. Renewing your mind, by planting God’s Word, will begin to bring a good harvest.