By Anita Mondragon

 

I was born on a farm in Kansas.  Some of the sayings we had don’t make any sense to city slickers!  The above is probably one of them 

 

I thought of this particular one the other day as  I recalled having a conversation with someone about five years ago regarding this very thing. .  But let me explain to you what that phrase means…

 

In today’s world, it could be said with one word…Karma.  We all know what that means, right?  However you treat folks, those same actions will be given back to you at some point in your life.  You can call it karma, payback, what goes around comes around….  The Bible puts it another way: it says in  Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”

 

It’s easy to sow unforgiveness, anger, hate, judgment, unkindness…but when these things come back to you, it’s a hard pill to swallow!!

 

Now, on the farm, if someone says to you, “Your chickens are gonna come home to roost one day…” , that is a warning that you better be careful of how you are treating others because it will come back to haunt you! 

 

Both of my grandma’s said this many times-not only to me, but in conversation regarding others.  Is it true???  You can bet your bottom dollar it is!  If you treat others with kindness, the same will come back to you.  If you gossip, back-stab, deal unjustly with others, someday that will all come back to you as well.

 

My dad was a farmer before he became a pastor.  He used to say to the party people at church -the bowlegged “Christians” that had one foot in the world, and the other in church on Sunday only, he said, “You think you can go out on Saturday night and sow your wild oats and then come to church on Sunday morning, run to the altar and pray for a crop failure…but it doesn’t work that way!  What you sow is what you’ll reap!  And when those chickens come home to roost, you’ll rue the day you did what you did!”

 

If you know anything about chickens, you know that they run all over the farm during the day, but when night falls, and day is done, they all return to the coop to roost.  I saw a thing on Facebook talking about judging others for their sins.  I’m sure you’ve all heard: “Not my circus…not my monkeys!”  Right:?  Well, the one I saw the other day said:  “Not my coop…not my poop!”  Both these sayings indicate that if it is your circus, or your coop…it’s your problem to deal with it because it was/is your responsibility for the outcome.

 

So, I said all that to say this…

THE SOWING IS EASY…BUT THE REAPING COMES BACK ONE HUNDRED FOLD!  And when those chickens finally come home to roost…you may find you’ll need a bigger coop!