I grew up riding the tractor with my grandaddy. If it wasn’t raining there was a very high percentage chance you could find me riding with him starring at the rows and rows of dirt. Something about watching the seeds being planted and seagulls flying overhead always gave me peace.

What’s crazy is the process to get the harvest. He would first break up the dirt to kill any weeds and air-ate the fields. Then it was making the rows and planting the seeds. Depending on the crop there would be pesticides and fertilizers spread out unto the fields helping the seeds grow. He would do this for every field. During major droughts, he would also set up irrigation hoses from one of the ponds, again to help the harvest. This process would take weeks and months of hard work and prayer for the harvest to finally be ready.

It’s the same with doing the right thing. So many people get caught up with wanting the rewards or the completion of a goal that they will take short cuts and not do the right thing. In sports people take steroids. In the business world, people step over peers to climb the cooperate ladder. In finances it’s the get-rich-quick schemes that get big fast and disappear just as fast. There seems to be a “short cut” idea for everything that goes against doing the right thing.

What if we take our goals and do them the right way? Think about the farmer. If my grandad would just show up expecting a harvest of corn but never toiled the soil, planted seeds, fertilized it, and irrigated it…there would be no harvest. If he got tired and skipped a step, the harvest would not happen either.

The Bible speaks about this:

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit….

Galatians 6:9 MSG

We all want the harvest. My granddaddy depended on the harvest to pay bills and he knew he couldn’t get tired and skip a step. In our personal lives, let us follow his example. Let’s harvest a good crop this year and years to come. Let’s do good!