One Seed at a Time

Encouragement for Mothers, Teachers, Homeschoolers

Late last fall, I felt down. I don’t remember what triggered it, other than worrying about why I tend to have small to medium-sized seminars as opposed to large ones most of the time. The Lord answered my concern instantly by giving me the most wonderful image, which is what I want to share with you.

A Wonderful Image

He showed me a picture of a person sowing seeds in two ways. One was sowing seeds by hand, just scattering them from side to side in handfuls. The other was with one of those gadgets gardeners often use to scatter seed where the seed goes in the top and you crank the little machine to cause the seed to burst out in a fan pattern as the person walks forward. In both images the sower walked forward with slow and deliberate steps, the seed shooting away from him in a broad pattern, falling to ready soil.

Scattering the Seed

I could almost hear the Holy Spirit whisper in my ear: “Do you see, Sarah? This is what you are doing with your seminars. Scattering My seed. Do not look at the number of people who come to your seminars as the important number. Look instead at the number of children, and others with reading problems, represented by each of those who take your seminars. You are scattering seed for THEM by training others to scatter the seed. Remember: that is how I am working through you.“

Seeds Planted

Suddenly I felt magnificent. I thought back over my years of teaching seminars. Without pulling all my files out, I cannot tell you precisely how many students are represented by the parents and teachers whom I have trained personally, but as I added it up, I saw the Lord’s Hand in my life in a different way than I had before. I saw not only the “seed” planted in my own garden (those whom I directly teach), but I also saw across many communities and many gardens, each garden tended by yet another seed sower, each seed another person’s life changed for the better by learning how to read and write well.

Images of Comfort

I thought you’d like that. These images comforted me so much I still feed my soul off what the Lord showed me that day. I suppose you could say that even those to whom I give my speeches about teaching and literacy, who will never take a seminar, are also part of the seed the Lord has me scattering. Each one of them will take that seed and think about it, talk about it, and confer with others about it.

Turning the Titan of Illiteracy Around

Perhaps some day, with all the people teaching Spell to Write and Read and doing the same thing with SWR that Wanda Sanseri started, maybe we really can help turn the titan of illiteracy around in our land.

One seed at a time.