Farm, Farmer or Both?

Whenever anyone acquires a piece of land: AKA a spouse, children, a home & a ministry within those confines, there is quite a laborious process in tending the fields and farms before the gardens, orchards or vineyards actually start producing fruit, meaning families are flourishing as a whole unit.  There is hard, back-breaking work like plowing the field, ripping up weeds, tilling the soil, planting of seeds and watering the ground before the smallest sign of plant life even appears!

My analogies go as follows:

Hard, back breaking work is the Truth that to be a Godly wife & mother it will depend upon your longing to sacrificially offer the Lord everything you have in regard to body, soul & Spirit!  This job is taxing physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually.

Plowing the field means granting Jesus the right to turn the field of your heart into soft, pliable & useable soil where there’s hard, rocky ground.  Ripping up weeds means acknowledging sins; our own as well as ones others have put on us, and plucking them up by the roots.  The illustration of uprooting the tares is likened to confessing those sins.  As we do so, we are making room in our hearts for God’s love, grace & mercy through Christ to flow into us while receiving forgiveness for ourselves as well as others.

This, to me, is the tilling of the ground.  It is where we have acquiesced to the plowing & removal of weeds by letting the Lord turn over that once unrelenting place so seeds now have adequate space to grow.  You see, Father will salvage every single spot of that ground if we but concede to His doing so!  In proper perspective, we know that everything is sanctioned to God & by God from eternity anyway!  Therefore, why not trust Him to do what is best with the earth He created from the beginning!

Next, with the planting of seeds, I relate that to us accepting & appropriating our Creator’s discharge of duties for us which He enlisted from the start.

Once we are determined to be excavated & cultivated, we are prepared for what’s to come.  And what I have found is the common thread through this planting process is to have complete reliance upon the Lord!  When waiting for the rain, we are tested in our faith.  I mean, only He knows when it will pour out on us.

But do we abide until then?  Because, with my similar analogy of us being both the farmer & the one being farmed, that seed inside the dirt is like us women when we go through hardships; In the midst of either being that praying farmer/woman or the bud buried below, we are forming & birthing from a seed to sprout!  And eventually the hope is both to become and usher in a crop of rich, abundant vegetation in ample supply fit for the Master Gardener!

And maybe you don’t connect the dots between my women/farmer/farmland analogies here.  But I write them to express the truths of what goes on behind the scenes between having a piece of land yet managing that land compared to taking up residence somewhere yet actually occupying that home (as in: “For me & my house we shall serve the Lord”).

Some do not understand the immense servitude, dedication, commitment, devotion & passion it takes to surrender to the Spirit’s work within our lives in order for the sweet, pleasant flowers to bloom in all their magnificent splendor!  My motive in writing this blog is to inspire you towards focusing on the end scene of your life, from here in the present, as a picturesque landscape endowed with plush pastures!

But it will cost you your will.

It will require dying to self constantly.  It will take failing multiple times as we learn.  It will mean pressing into the process of the Spirit’s desire to prune us regularly, picking up our cross & carrying it.  In order for the transformative power of Christ to occupy more & more of our souls, we have to see our lives not as our own.

Just as farmers always face the elements, so will we.  But we WILL gain advantage over our adversary’s works – weather, pests, weeds – when we rely on our Savior’s strength.  The troubles we face only build our character.  With each step of faith, we gain more & more hope to prevail in the midst of the trials.  When we trust God is with us and for us, we better understand both our purpose and our significance as wives and mothers; who other than a farmer can appreciate another farmer’s travail?

Sisters, it is worth the extensive requisite of time & energy to be Godly women; for, each person’s plot of land makes a difference in the lives of others.  The fruit & vegetation produced in & through us will not just help feed our families but our neighbors!  Plus, once we advance in our understanding of how to care for our fields well,  we won’t have to limit our help to merely sharing our fruit but also be in positions to impart those tools & skills to other women in how to care for their land!  This way people are not just always coming to us to have their needs met but on the contrary, they too are taught the tall trade of wife & mother for themselves.  And in turn, after the Spirit has provided what they need through you sharing your experiences, those ladies subsequently launch into their personal ministries!  So the cycle continues!

Becoming a great farmer comes when we realize we are both the land God uses AND the ones He entrusts to manage that land! Failure to see both roles will lead to weeds, death in the fields, and a poor harvest. Respecting our dual nature as both farm and farmer is essential and monumental: God gives us as women opportunities to help others grow while being grown ourselves.

Once we reciprocate the blessing Jesus offered us in the gift of hands on training, we administer to others what we’ve obtained through our experiences of both being farmed and the one farming!  Both are imperative for optimal growth!  And on the ripple effect goes in reaching women everywhere for the Kingdom!

When we each have our individual farms functioning in full operation, we’ll collectively reach the ultimate unity in the Spirit Jesus Himself prayed for in John 17!

So… Which do you struggle most to embrace – farming or being farmed?