Before You SplitSample

“Start Planting Your Abundant Harvest”

Disrupting that feeling of being stuck in your marriage is hard to do. You feel a resistance from the inside. And yet, what’s true is you reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7). 

In your marriage, what are you planting? Are you sowing seeds of kindness, patience, and love? Or are you sowing indifference, criticism, or suspicion? What’s the quality and nature of your words and actions—the seeds you’re sow­ing—in your relationship? 

Don’t worry if you can manage only to plant tiny seeds. Every little kindness, every little gift, every small apology, and every overlooking of a slight has the potential to create re­sults that vastly outgrow what you planted. Remember that a tiny mustard seed can give birth to a splendidly spacious tree. 

Don’t expect instant results when you start planting the seeds of new life in your marriage. Be willing to wait. Anyone who’s had experience with planting knows it’s futile to keep your eyes fixed on the spot where you planted. You need to give those seeds time to germinate, sprout, and grow.

Don’t plant the seeds of gen­erosity and kindness and then watch your spouse to measure the response. You’ll only set yourself up for disappointment if you expect your partner to spring into action once you’ve extended yourself for him or her. 

Watching doesn’t make the seed grow faster. But fastening your hope to the promise of your harvest and your joy in the future will make your waiting easier. 

Your grace-filled attitude toward your spouse and your new, lov­ing habits will have a cumulative impact over time. 

You have the potential to build a richly satisfying future marriage by sowing the seeds of love now, even if you have to sow seeds into the cold, hard ground. Alternatively, bitterness and indifference accumulate over time too, and they do so in a way that sucks the joy out of life. Carried on over time, these destroy both self and others. 

Even if your partner doesn’t reciprocate when you start planting seeds, you will reap a harvest when you authentically sow seeds of love and keep on sowing. The harvest may not appear where you intended, but the promise stands. You will experi­ence a reward that is worth the wait. Plant seeds for an abundant harvest and hold out for joy.

Jesus, please empower me with your Spirit to plant seeds of love and reconciliaton in my marriage. Set my soul to rest in you as I await your promised abundant harvest.

We hope this Plan encouraged you. Learn more about Before You Split by Toni Nieuwhof here .