What Farmers Teach Us
- Maybe you grew up on a farm, like me.
- Maybe you learned to work the soil, like me.
- Maybe you planted a family garden, like me.
- Maybe you sweated and toiled to remove the weeds, like me.
- Maybe you relished the dark, rainy days, like me.
- Maybe you loved the sweet taste of the harvest, like me.
Maybe, like me, you struggle to be patient, to wait, but we are instructed in God’s Word how ‘patience’ is a “Fruit of the Holy Spirit,” one of the nine we must desire. We are also taught through the Bible how we are to work for the Lord—patiently waiting—and why we are to continue, even during times of opposition.
The apostle Paul writes to young Timothy a second time, reminding him—
“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome,
[how we are to work for the Lord]
- but be kind to all,
- able to teach,
- patient when wronged,
- with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition,
[why we are to continue, even during times of opposition]
- if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
- and they may come to their senses
- and escape from the snare of the devil,
having been held captive by him to do his will.”
(The Second Letter of Paul to Timothy 2: 24-26 NASB)
As a child, we would often be required to rise early on Saturday mornings, so we could go into the tobacco fields before the heat of the sun. As the overhead light permeated the slits where my eyelids closed, the mornings usually began with my dad’s words: “Get on your duds (my clothes); you cannot sleep all day.” You can imagine our grimace, not because we were opposed to the hard work that awaited but because we opposed the early morning start. Maybe this is why I so enjoy the dark of the early morning now, and maybe this is why I will say one day when I encounter my dad in heaven: “Thank you, dad, for helping me become a person who knows the value of working and for helping me become one who rises early.”
You see, my dad was a farmer at heart, and he taught us so much. I learned, beside him, the value to be found in working hard, how our combined toil would bring a luscious ‘pay off’ when the wintertime came. To be clear, my dad did not send us out into the fields to toil alone, but he led us there and then he stayed there, beside us, as we sowed seeds, spread fertilizer, hoed the bulk of the rows, pulled weeds, and then gathered the harvest. I truly believe my dad had learned from God the importance of patiently toiling while waiting for the harvest.
- Our heavenly Father knows what we need; He knows how we might become slack in our obedience, how we might sleep when we should be working.
- Our Father, in His omniscient, knows the day is coming when the toil will be accomplished, the Day of the Lord, when His Son Jesus will return.
The Lord, in His vastness, knows the hearts of those we serve and He knows the opposition we will face. So, He reminds us to be patient, to obediently toil & to ‘stay within the row He has led us to work.’
Therefore, our Father instructs us to WORK while the labor is plentiful, for HE knows the harvest day is coming.
Just as we toiled in the garden and in the tobacco fields, bent over our hoes, intent on the work laid out for us within our assigned row, let us be the servants of God that He has called us to be.
- May we remember the childhood lessons we learned & What Farmers Teach Us.
- May we also be reminded of what our Savior Jesus has taught us from the very beginning.