How my farming family has helped my prayer life and ministry

I know, I didn't grow up on a farm. I wish I did, but there's no way to change that now. Still, visiting my uncles and Grandpa that farm has still impacted me enough that I have a pretty good knowledge and basic understanding of it (and my dad grew up farming so, it's rubbed off some). I can say that having a knowledge of how my family farms and the hard work they put into their crops put things into a new perspective for me when I was reading the Parable of the Sower. This is some scripture I have read many times, and I'll be honest, when I opened up to pray with it I kind of doubted the Lord would speak anything new to my heart since it was so familiar. BUT, I decided to reject that lie and allow myself to be open to whatever the Lord was going to say to me. As you may or may not be familiar with it, here's the Parable of the Sower:

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ² And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³ And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, ⁶ but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears,^[a] let him hear.”

Now, Jesus goes on to explain how the seed is the word of God and the different soils represent our hearts and receptivity to His word. However, this particular time Jesus was steering me in a different direction. 

I couldn't stop thinking about this farmer who is sowing the seeds. As missionaries, sowing seeds is pretty much our whole job- we're rarely around for the harvest it seems. But, this farmer was nothing like my uncles or my Grandpa- I can pretty much guarantee they would never take their precious seed and toss it onto rocky ground or just let it dump out onto the road. I kept thinking to myself that a good farmer would never plant this way. So, I continued to ask the Lord why He was pointing this out to me. It was pretty obvious- don't scatter seed on untilled soil. But, what did that mean for us? Was I 'scattering seed' on unprepared ground? As I continued to pray- it became clear. He was showing me the importance of Incarnational Evangelization. Evangelizing to others by sharing life with them. It's important to gain a person's trust, become their friend even in order to effectively share the gospel with them. I asked myself how am I 'tilling the soil' of those around me and preparing them to hear the Word? It's tempting to think- I'll just ignore the rocky soil and work on the good ground. However, we should try to be as effective as we possibly can and that may mean focusing on those people that are really ready to hear the Gospel and become missionaries themselves. But, we can't spend all our time tilling the soil if we have a plot of land ready to sow. We have to do some of both. 

So, thank you my farming family for inspiring our ministry to sow and reap with the same ardor you have for your crops! Blessings on your harvests!

-Meghan