We Sow and We Reap

Sow a thought, reap an act.
Sow an act, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

--Taken from Peter Kreeft’s “Fundamentals of the Faith”

This hit me hard when I read it, because it is true. It is so easy for fallen human beings to go from a single thought to a destiny, without even realizing it.

It reminds me of an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Have a drink. The drink has a drink. And the drink has you.”

All it takes is the seed of evil to be planted within us, and an entire garden of bad fruit can grow, and ultimately devour our paths toward God.

Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor,” for a reason. He also taught us to pray to the Father by saying “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” for a reason. We cannot enter the gates of Heaven with any hate in us, just as we are turned down at the stadium if we are carrying a firearm. There are no exceptions—leave the gun behind, and you shall enter the stadium, leave the hate behind, we shall enter into God’s Stadium.

Therefore, human relationships are the most important possessions we have on earth, because it is a direct connection between one of God’s creations with another. God’s LOVE connected with God’s LOVE.

Just as it is hard for an alcoholic to acknowledge his addiction when surrounded by other alcoholics in a bar, it is hard for two people to acknowledge that they are in a sinful union until they are apart. That is why so many people stay within the “comfort zone” of an abusive relationship, because by leaving it, they will have to acknowledge it is truly abusive.

The difference is that two human beings make up a marriage (union with God), whereas a human and a material item (alcohol, products of shopping, pornography, etc) make up no relationship at all, but rather, a sinful disillusion.

Human beings can find God’s LIGHT, the path of righteousness, and follow it, but a material object will forever be a material object, and a material object will NEVER bring you happiness, because happiness is God.

The drunk must eliminate the booze to get better. Human beings, to get better, need each other. Even the most holy of saints needed other people, because if there were no other people, there would have been no one to pray for.

We all sow thoughts into actions, actions into habits, habits into characters, and characters into destinies. We do not have a choice, because we all have a destiny. And we cannot control our every thought, therefore, bad seeds will exist in the garden. But a good farmer tends to his fields. A good farmer does not allow the bad seeds to overcome the good seeds, otherwise he ends up with a harvest full of bad crops.

Just as the good farmer possesses the necessary tools of discovering the bad seeds before they grow into plants, God provides us the necessary tools of discovering the bad thoughts we sow into actions, and so on, and so on.

Because of free will, it is up to us to tend our fields. That is, if we would like a profitable harvest.

Love and GOD Forever!
Anthony Paul