My Discoveries about Sowing & Reaping

Jessica's Orchid Blooms

Some of us may have heard of this poem:

Sow a thought and you reap an action;

Sow an act and you reap a habit;

Sow a habit and you reap a character;

Sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I first heard this in primary school, and it has stayed with me. When we decided on the theme for these months to be “Sow & Reap”, it came back to me and I realised that I have developed some thoughts about it that can impact our desire to really live. 

Emerson claims that our thoughts are the seeds of our actions, and the actions we take, in turn, form our habits, which then shape our character, and finally, our destiny. 

Thoughts as Seeds: Our thoughts are the starting point for everything we do. If we consistently focus on negative or unhelpful thoughts, we will likely act in ways that reflect those thoughts. Conversely, if we seed our lives with habitual thoughts that help us focus on Truth, we are likely to act in ways that will align with those truths. This is a call to examine our thoughts and be intentional about how our mind operates!

There is an interesting passage in the Bible that calls us to do exactly this:

“whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4v8-9)

This passage surfaces two places to watch our sowing: 

First, thoughts of whatever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy - a call to focus on these things. This is no small challenge, especially when our larger culture tends to complain or when we are hurting.

Yet perhaps, this tells us that there is always light, beauty, and goodness we can choose to focus on.

Then it talks about community / trusted role models. So our thought patterns are shaped by who we keep company with and what we do. I feel a better appreciation for how the TRL community is about scaffolding, building rhythms and regular practices, together with others! For when we come for In.habit: Prayer, Quiet Hour, join a Read-Share season or show up at Communi-tea, we are helping to sow helpful thoughts, often to combat the dark and shadowy sides of who we are.

Actions as Habits: This leads us to the next point on habits. I still remember Ps Jenni starting 2024 off with a session on the power of habits. Our lives are made up of many habits, good and bad. These are basically behaviors and actions we repeatedly do. They can seem harmless especially when we cruise along without thinking about them because they are like our default operations! But as we can see, it is possible to redesign our habits once we consider what we are doing, and what thoughts and influences are leading us towards these behaviours.

Shaping Character: This becomes critical when Emerson tells us that our character is largely the sum of our habits. How would we describe our character? When I reflect on this, I realise that I want to be stable, loving, creative and full of life - I want to really live, and to flourish! It takes time for a farmer to reap his harvest from sowing. Similarly, it takes time for us to reap the effects and see the transformation of what we are sowing in thought and the power of our habits to shape who we are.

What is encouraging is that we can make these shifts. We can introduce changes. We can commit to new thoughts, actions, and habits. But as these take time, the right community becomes very important, in two ways:

We need to hear others’ stories. The time from sowing to reaping can be long, and we can get discouraged when growth is slow. We may forget what we are sowing towards, so we need to hear stories of others who are on the same journey, but at different points in their sowing/growth/reaping season. We gain strength when we realise that our struggles in the waiting season are not unique to us. We are encouraged when we hear how others have overcome their ‘in-between’ seasons, and we find hope when we hear how others eventually arrive at their season of reaping!

We need to share our stories — of sowing, of struggling, of waiting, of weeding, and of reaping. In all our seasons, not only do we need encouragement from a trusted and safe community, we also need to share our stories— using our voice and owning our growth, we realise that in our seemingly less-than-perfect growth from sowing to reaping, there is beauty and gifts that can bring life to us and others. In our authentic exchange, wonderful life-giving truths and lessons become our anchor and building blocks for character formation. These shape our values and enrich others and ourselves as we see the blossoming of our eventual destiny.

I hope more of us can experience this at our monthly Communi-Tea as well as through our social media platforms — a safe space where we can all share our journeys and encourage one another. 

Creating Destiny: And now, we reach the portion about destiny. Our character, which is the product of our habits and actions, determines the kind of life we live and the kind of destiny we participate in creating.

Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh believed, “The score takes care of itself. If goals are the key to success, why doesn’t every athlete who sets a goal win an Olympic Gold Medal? Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems (the collective daily habits of your thoughts & actions) are about the processes leading to those results.” (Quote from the book Atomic Habits)

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My life has deepened and been transformed as I work at the thoughts I sow.

As we consistently seed our lives with thoughts that help us to anchor on Truth, and water the seeds of habitual thoughts and actions with plenty of time, and a healthy dose of community support, life will naturally sprout, and the time of reaping will eventually be seen. 

In a sense, your destiny takes care of itself. 

If you are new to TRL or never joined a community like ours, come be part of this journey of sowing healthy thoughts, building habits that will help you to really live, and allow the TRL community to nourish and water your garden so that we can all grow and reap a flourishing life-giving garden. 

I am a work-in-progress, but I believe in trusting the process of sowing, watering, weeding and waiting as I tend to both my physical home-garden as well as the garden of my soul. By God’s grace, my physical plants have been surviving and some have been flowering ever so often when it is the blooming season. And by God’s grace, may that also be true for my soul, and for all of you who are reading. 😊 

Jessica Zhuo is a full-time working mother of 2 boys (aged 15 and 10) volunteering on the ToReally.Live Core Team.