Planting Intentional Seeds: What Are You Growing in Your Home?

Yesterday at church, I was listening to a talk about the “law of the harvest.” In its simplest form, it means you reap what you sow. Most of my life, I’ve thought of it more like an old 90s rap lyric — what goes around comes around. Basically: don’t do bad stuff and maybe bad stuff won’t come back to you.

But what I heard yesterday gave me a new perspective.

The speaker talked about how we get to choose the seeds we plant. If we plant a tomato seed, we’re not harvesting corn. If we want tomatoes, we choose tomato seeds. We plant them at the right time. We give them good soil, sunlight, and water. We nourish what we want to grow.

So this morning, I asked myself:

What seeds am I planting in my family? What fruits do I want to see growing and ripening in the seasons to come?

I made a list. I want seeds of…

• Generosity

• Service

• Compassion

• Motivation

• Love

• Compromise

  
  

I want to see those things show up in my kids. I feel like I try to do those things, but honestly some days I don't see it. In myself or them.

Ideally those seeds are planted in small, daily ways — how we talk to ourselves, how we repair after mistakes, how we handle stress, how we show love when we’re tired and once again how we talk to ourselves or forgive ourselves if we don't do all that perfectly. Which we won't most of the time.

Kids don’t always listen to what we say — but they they usually watch what we nourish.

Even though they watch us or in my case my kids watch me, I think I would like to put a more intentional focus on teaching them. Not just in the moments when something went wrong and someone is in trouble. I don't think they are actually listening much during those moments anyway — the emotions are just too high.

I think that I don't have to over think it, teaching can just be small conversations.

None of these things stand alone — they work together to shape the kind of humans our children become, and the kind of humans we continue to grow into.

The weeds

And of course, there are also seeds we never meant to plant.

Seeds of overwhelm, guilt, frustration, saying yes when we really want to say no, or believing we’re not doing enough. Some of those seeds were thrown at us by others. Some we picked up online. Some grew from patterns we’ve carried for years.

The good news? We get to decide what we water. We get to pull weeds. We get to plant intentional seeds, no matter how small.

As this year comes to an end, I want to pause and notice:

✨ What seeds did I intentionally plant this year?

✨ What do I want to plant more of?

✨ What needs to be pulled up before it takes over?

✨ What do I want to harvest in my home next season?

Something the speaker said really stuck with me:

One apple seed can grow a tree that produces thousands of apples. I love to prove people wrong when it comes to sports such as baseball. I love to play soccer in school and baseball, basketball and pickleball outside of school. I am very competitive and will never back down from a challenge and will keep working hard to get what I want. I want to grow up to be a MLB (Major League baseball) player and/or chef. I want to be a baseball player to prove people wrong about how girls can’t play baseball (and because I want to make history). I would like to become a chef because I love to make food for other people and myself.

Which made me wonder: what if one small shift — one choice — ends up changing our whole family experience next year?

-One boundary.

-One moment of patience.

-One act of service.

-One apology said sooner than later.

-One simple tradition of kindness.

-One “I’m proud of you.”

-One “I’m proud of me.”

Those are seeds too.

If any of this resonates with you — if you feel like there are old weeds you’d like to uproot, or if you want to be more intentional about the seeds you’ve been planting — I’d love to hear from you.

Even just starting a small conversation about it can be the first step toward the kind of growth you want to see — in yourself, your kids, and your family.

Learn more about Sommer