{"id":3590,"date":"2016-08-21T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3590"},"modified":"2016-07-09T18:57:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T23:57:50","slug":"choose-to-think-about-what-you-sow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3590","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Think About What You Sow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Another Year of Choices<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3594\" src=\"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reap-What-You-Sow-Ribbet-design-with-photo-free-from-www.sketchport.com_-1-300x175.jpg\" alt=\"Reap What You Sow - Ribbet design with photo free from www.sketchport.com\" width=\"304\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reap-What-You-Sow-Ribbet-design-with-photo-free-from-www.sketchport.com_-1-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reap-What-You-Sow-Ribbet-design-with-photo-free-from-www.sketchport.com_-1-768x448.jpg 768w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reap-What-You-Sow-Ribbet-design-with-photo-free-from-www.sketchport.com_-1-600x350.jpg 600w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reap-What-You-Sow-Ribbet-design-with-photo-free-from-www.sketchport.com_-1.jpg 887w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Since our past, present, and future sins have all been forgiven, some Christians think they can get away with sin. After all, when God forgives He \u201cremembers our sins no more\u2026\u201d (Hebrews 8:12; 10: 17). That is true, but although God forgives, He doesn\u2019t magically wipe out the consequences of our actions. He has set a law in motion called cause and effect. In biblical terminology it means we reap what we sow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.\u201d (Galatians 6:7-9)<\/p>\n<p>We may choose to ignore this fact, but in our hearts we know it\u2019s true. While reaping and sowing are agricultural terms, a more modern way to say it might be\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What goes around comes around.<\/li>\n<li>Things come back to haunt you.<\/li>\n<li>Your sins will find you out. (Numbers 32:33)<\/li>\n<li>You play; you pay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some may put off participating in a relationship with Christ feeling they want time to \u201csow their wild oats.\u201d After all, won\u2019t God forgive us? Yes, He will. He will forgive us for our sins, but there is an aftermath. Sin is like driving a nail through your hand. Forgiveness pulls the nail out and allows healing, but it doesn\u2019t take away the pain or the scar that remains.<\/p>\n<p>As the old saying goes: Sin will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay,<\/p>\n<p>The reaping what you sow principle applies in every aspect of our lives. Abusing our bodies shortens our lifespan. Going against our conscience leaves the mind dull, impacting our ability to make wise decisions. Repeatedly losing self-control results in anger, envy, outbursts, cruelty, and so on. Constantly giving into what we know is wrong results in developing bad habits that become a part of who we are. These type of actions hinder us from living the full and abundant life God desires for us.<\/p>\n<p>Consider this\u2026 Many think God sits in heaven looking for sinners to zap with an electrical shock. He doesn\u2019t have to do that. Sin carries its own penalty, without extra help from God. It\u2019s like drinking slow poison. Eventually it all catches up with us. In the end, no one gets away with sin. Not because of a vengeful God, but because we reap what we sow.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3595\" src=\"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-goes-around-comes-around...-Ribbet-designed-with-Arrow-Circle-free-from-pixabay.com_-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"What goes around, comes around... Ribbet designed with Arrow Circle free from pixabay.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-goes-around-comes-around...-Ribbet-designed-with-Arrow-Circle-free-from-pixabay.com_-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-goes-around-comes-around...-Ribbet-designed-with-Arrow-Circle-free-from-pixabay.com_-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-goes-around-comes-around...-Ribbet-designed-with-Arrow-Circle-free-from-pixabay.com_-600x601.jpg 600w, https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-goes-around-comes-around...-Ribbet-designed-with-Arrow-Circle-free-from-pixabay.com_.jpg 719w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggestions for practicing this choice\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Do not view God as a vengeful God, out to get you. God loves us and wants to help us stop hurting ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Make a list of seeds you personally need to stop sowing. Are you sowing anger, lust, greed, hate, strife, resentment, discontent, etc.?<\/p>\n<p>Sow good seeds to reap a good harvest \u2013 seeds like love and kindness. Make a list of five things you can do today to show kindness to others and do them.<\/p>\n<p>Stop doing stupid stuff! Realize everything you do doesn\u2019t just affect you, but those around you. Every time you say, \u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t do this\u201d then guess what? You probably shouldn\u2019t do it \u2013 so don\u2019t do it!<\/p>\n<p>Live your life as if everyone can see what you are doing, because in this day and age, almost everyone can see what you are doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another Year of Choices By Barbara Dahlgren Since our past, present, and future sins have all been forgiven, some Christians think they can get away with sin. After all, when God forgives He \u201cremembers our sins no more\u2026\u201d (Hebrews 8:12; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3590\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}