What Are You Cultivating?

Linda and I were grocery shopping while on vacation. There were three different moms shopping with their children that we heard throughout our time in the store. There was a lot of yelling, swearing, and threats. Now I know, grocery shopping with small children can be a challenge. But it was breaking my heart to hear these children spoken to they way they were. I thought, “No child should be talked to this way."Then on our way to our truck in the parking lot, we heard another mom yell, “G__ F______ D____!…” And on she went with a torrid of verbal blasting. As we drove by her wheeling the kids and groceries in the lot, I wanted to roll my window down and ask her, “Is this how you want them to talk to you in a few years? Because they will.” And they most definitely will.You see, our future is cultivated in the present. Who you will be, how you will be treated, and the things that happen to you, will more often than not, be determined by who you are, how you treat others, and what you do today. It’s that way with kids, parents, marriage, siblings, work, finances, and so much in life.As we are going through Proverbs in The Bridge Bible Reading Plan, I am seeing it time and again, our futures are largely determined by the things we do today. Our futures are farmed in the present. We are cultivating the next decade. You scream at your kids, someday they will scream at you. You blow your money now, you’ll be broke in your later years. You sluff off at work, you’ll be out of work when the economy turns.Certainly, sometimes bad stuff just happens to us. But even in those difficult times, how we prepared for the future by cultivating life in the present, will be there for us, or against us. What you sow, you will reap.I did a funeral a few years ago. It was particularly heartbreaking. When I met with the woman’s offspring, they had a hard time bringing up positive memories of their mom. When she died, she had no friends, she lived a lonely life, and she died alone. After meeting with her kids, I could not help but think, “Most people die the way they lived.” That woman’s elderly years were cultivated in her youth. She blew all her valuable relationships and she died alone.You are farming your future now. What kind of harvest will you be reaping?