Thought for the week

JESUS is famous for the parables that he told. In one he explained that a farmer was sowing seeds in his fields.

The story describes how the seeds fell on different types of ground. Seeds fell on the path, on the rocky ground, amongst the weeds and finally on the good soil.

Each seed had a different experience. The seed that fell on the path was eaten up quickly by birds. The seed that fell on rocky soil grew quickly but because there wasn’t much moisture in the earth, the heat of the sun quickly shrivelled them up and they died. The seed that fell amongst the weeds again grew quickly, but of course weeds grow quicker and choked the plants so again they didn’t last long.

Finally, many of the seeds were sown in the good soil producing a good crop of thirty, sixty or one hundred times what was sown.

The parable of the sower was used to explain what people might do with important pieces of advice. In this parable, the seed is an important message about how we should think and act. The different places the seed fell are the different ways in which people act on the advice they are given. Every piece of advice we are given is like a small seed.

This parable reminds us, that even if we are given good advice, it doesn’t automatically make our lives better, we need to do something with that advice.

The difference between the types of ground made a big difference in what the plants finally produced.

What do you need to do today to allow a good seed of advice to bear good crop in your life?