A man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows! If he sows to please his own wrong desires, . . . he will surely reap a harvest of spiritual decay and death; but if he plants the good things of the Spirit, he will reap the everlasting life which the Holy Spirit gives him. Gal. 6:7, 8, TLB.

A young bride-to-be carefully selected flower seeds in just the right colors for her summer wedding in her family's yard. She drew up a plan and left it with her mother.

Spring sunshine warmed the soil. The rains left it moist and perfect for tilling. Weeds were already thriving, but after considerable nagging from her overworked mom, her dad finally set aside one morning for seed planting. After a night of too much worry and too little sleep he hastily did the job, quickly checked the automatic watering systems, and considered his duty done.

Nature has laws of germination and growth. Seeds bear genetic traits and reproduce after their kind. Garden plants develop and grow silently, continuously, and imperceptibly in an environment with adequate sunshine, water, and nutrients. Weeds do the same. Both yield their flowers, fruits, and seeds. And so it was with the family garden. No one paid much attention as it grew.

Shortly before the wedding the bride returned home. To her distress, she found almost as many weeds as flowers growing. The yard was a hodgepodge of plants and colors, nothing like her plan. Her parents had been too busy to care. She felt disappointed and unloved.

So it is with the garden of the mind. It too follows laws of nature and produces according to the care given. The quality of the yield and resulting harvest is the character we develop by our personal choices.

"By the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unvarying certainty. The reaping testifies to the sowing. . . . On the unfaithful husbandman the harvest passes sentence of condemnation. And in the highest sense this is true also in the spiritual realm" (Education, p. 108).

Have you looked at the garden of your mind recently? What's growing in it? Weeds of intemperance, thorns of conflict, and briars of immorality? Or are you carefully tending your garden and enjoying a rich harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Gal. 5:22, 23)?

Lord, help me to plant the good things of the Spirit, and weed out harmful tendencies and bad habits that will destroy the possibility of enjoying a rich harvest later in life.

Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.