The culinary part of our family really enjoys this time of year. Late summer is the time when fresh produce is making it’s way to our dinning room table. Friends and neighbors have always been generous with the growings they have collected from their backyard gardens. Fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, beans and corn are our favorite way eat. Michele and I have discussed planting a garden, we have ample room, just short on time. Urban family farming is huge. We have friends just around the corner, who in addition to gardening; raise poultry, the fresh eggs are wonderful. Believe it or not, we are all farmers. Each of us are owners of a vast, beautiful farm with large fields in which crops are planted and in due time, harvested and distributed. The vast, beautiful farm that I am speaking of is our mind. The seeds sown into its fields by ourselves and others are in the form of thoughts, ideas and attitudes; both good and bad. Friends, we need to be careful of who sows into the fields of our mind. See, over time, the thoughts sown into your mind become your attitude and eventually they transfer into your heart were they become your beliefs. What you believe eventually becomes your conviction and lifestyle. For instance, if you spend time with negative people, they will sow seeds of negativity into your field; or your mind, and eventually you will have a crop of negativity growing in your life. And just as one seed of corn has a potential yield of thousands of other seeds of corn, one seed of negativity has a potential yield of thousands of other seeds of negativity within yourself. Seeds of failure, doubt, jealousy, drama, bigotry, indifference, immaturity and hate all produce a crop of failure, doubt, jealousy, drama bigotry, indifference, immaturity and hate. Whatever is sown is what is reaped at harvest time. Never has a farmer sown a crop of apples and harvested a crop of oranges. It is a universal law and we can’t change that. What goes in the soil, comes out in multiplied fold. On the flip side, if we sow seeds of love, compassion, maturity, strength, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, grace and mercy, we will reap a harvest of love, compassion, maturity, strength, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, grace and mercy. Michele and I have three grown children and each of them has a great group of friends. Actually, they have an incredible group of friends. When they were younger, Michele and I began taking note whenever our kids would spend the day or night with certain kids and return home with attitudes that differed from those cultivated in our home. There were times when they would come home back-talking, yelling and fighting with one another and us, depressed or even angry. Sometimes it was wheels-off drama!! It went further, Michele and I noticed when we were with their parents, even on a limited basis, we saw the same traits in the parents we saw in their kids. Frankly, we believe they were blind to it, it was their way of life. When we approached them, they admitted they needed to change but never put any action to their words. We have always encouraging our children to make solid friend-choices and to spend “friend-time” with healthy people when ever possible. It’s not that we were better than anyone, but we were protecting our children and what their lives were going to produce. It wasn’t a perfect system, we were doing the best we could. If you have to be with people who are into “bad-farming” work something into your life that will “renew” your thinking after being with them. Be careful who your children hang out with. If you experience the same thing we did with our children, it is your job as a parent to protect your child’s mind and your home. Ignoring “bad seeds” planted into your child will not make them go away. We have always tried to sow good things into our family farm. Because healthy living is more than just a healthy dinning room table thing, it’s a healthy attitude and thinking thing. And that may mean eliminating some bad seed sowers and tossing out some bad eggs who wont change.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:30:26 +0000
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