In the bible, there are multiple scriptures on tiling your soil. Consider a farmer planting a seed; what type of soil will be needed? A farmer must consider the seasons of when to plant and harvest, the weather, and the ground. The farmer must prepare the soil to receive the seed by breaking up the hardened ground, ensuring no weeds will overtake the crop, and making sure irrigation is in place. Once the soil is ready the seed is planted and will grow roots to keep it grounded not easily blown over and receive the nutrients and hydration that is needed; eventually emerging from the soil, maturing, growing taller and taller until it is ready for harvest.
What if the farmer had not tilled the soil or prepared the soil so that it had the right environment, nutrients, and hydration? The seed would not have flourished.
I have been on a spiritual journey and admit I grew up on hardened, barren soil and my past experiences in life reflected it. Getting to know God through prayer and reading the Bible and its teachings brought me to an awareness I am grateful to have learned how to do and be better. To establish change the blame must end, accountability begins, and inner reflection to heal the past with forgiveness, building up your temple in mind, body, and soul.
Biblically the “seed” I consider as words, thoughts, and actions. The “soil” represents the minds, attitudes, will, intentions, environments, and hearts of those in whom the words, thoughts, and actions are sown. Those seeds take root, grow, and produce fruit based on the state of the “soil” and whether or not it is suitable for harvest and action to maintain. Negative hardened soil not prepared or tilled has thorns and weeds that can grow up among the good seed and choke it out. Whereas positive soil that has been properly prepared and tilled will flourish, mature, and grow tall for a fruitful harvest.
The moment planted in our mother's womb and the environment and how the soil is prepared is just the beginning. As we grow, we continue to plant seeds in our soil as we observe taking on our parent's & societal wounding, beliefs, and behaviors. All that we are exposed to creates fertilizer for the soil in which our seeds grow. Every season we harvest what was sown both the positive and negative. Your words, thoughts, habit, beliefs, behaviors, and actions are your seeds, and how you have prepared and tilled your soil reflects within yourself and also reflects in your life.
If your seed is planted on the hardened (negative) ground; hard in words; hard in thoughts; hardened actions, then your seed is not going to grow it's in fact going to die; it's not going to have any fruit whatsoever. Consider the toxicity and addictions and what you are choosing. How many times have you worked hard for something only for it to slip from your fingers? Emotional reactions destroying what you love & build? Mismanagement of finances preventing you from the life you dream of? The sins of pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth.
“If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." 1 Corinthians 3:15
If you have softened (positive) soil that's been tilled through repentance, forgiveness, salvation, reflection, accountability, prayer, stillness, reading scripture, and being of service as fertilizer. Your thoughts, words, and actions will plant a seed that will prosper and grow because there is a nurturing and kind environment that will expand into being fruitful in health, relationships, finances, and family creating more seeds that will also grow and nourish the other things. Continuously tilling as the seasons change there will be ebb and flow & may not be perfect since there are cycles.
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing" ...Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 ESV
You are only in control of yourself. How else has hardened ground harvested in your life? What behaviors, beliefs, habits, fear, anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy, resentments, and what the bible refers to as sins overtaken your garden? Where have you created limits within your life called a comfort zone because we're so hard in our ways and we're not tilling the ground prone to following the "norm" and what is accepted?
We're void of understanding and lacking the knowledge of God. We are responsible for tilling our soil and praying to God to help us to heal and uproot and release what is no longer serving our highest good.
Internal negative self-talk, abusing yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally, lying to yourself, abandoning and rejecting yourself. We can become addicted to toxicity because it keeps us in a state of adrenaline, when normal, love, and peace seems boring it is because we are used to being in a constant state of toxicity and excess within and around us. Think about the ways you overindulge in food, social media, seeking outside validation, drugs, alcohol, shopping, gossip, instigating, zoning out on tv, games, and more. It begins with you cleansing yourself internally of the inner battles, wounds, trauma, habits, patterns, and behaviors.
Our ways keep us stagnant and stuck in a place, and a mental prison with thoughts that continually recycles and puts us in past traumas, hurts, and pains. Tilling and loosening up the soil, pulling up the weeds, and thorns allow us to let go so that we can create and plant new seeds based on our experiences and lessons learned finding the positive and what it taught us. The new seeds in the tilled and softened soil that is kind with patience, faith, belief, courage, and compassion can flourish and grow into a beautiful garden.
16"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Matthew 7:16-19
22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
The Bible is a manual to life, as we experience life, we begin to gain understanding which is knowledge and wisdom. If you are not tilling your garden, you're lacking the understanding and the tools to be equipped to be a good steward of blessings and resources. Your life will cycle like the movie "Groundhog Day" with your life in a cycle of repeat producing the same outcomes in your life over and over again no matter where you move or the new people you bring into your life. The change begins within you.
Uprooting the weeds of old beliefs of fear, worry, hurts, shame, guilt, anger, and doubt that isn't serving as your garden develops in beauty within and out flourishing through healing, forgiving, and letting go of the past because none of us truly knew how to do better. Move forward with new experiences and begin transforming and elevating thoughts, words, and actions developing through inner work to heal, self-development with intelligence establish a new character that has become more virtuous, righteous, compassionate, understanding, and patient because we have experienced things enough to understand and not be so hardened.
Once harvested we go out into the world with more open awareness experiencing other cultures and experiences to go beyond what someone has taught us. You are more willing to learn by continuously expanding through experiences, self-development, wisdom, and understanding to plant more seeds into our garden and in all those we meet.
Podcast Becoming Your Own VIP Mind, Body, and Soul
Episode: "Tilling the Soil of Your Mind" Streamed 07/28/2022
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