The Harvest

Most mornings when I walk, I bring along a scripture card.  Today's verse was Hebrews 12:11.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

In meditating on that scripture (in other words, not simply reading it for memory, but reading it for change), I started remembering what life was like while we were working to get out of debt.  We committed to pinching pennies, cutting back on spending, and living a "bare bones" lifestyle.  The discipline of that was painful.  I made decisions to not spend time with particular people because that time would involve money.  I can remember several meals of rice, beans, and cheese.  When child friends would come to us asking us to buy whatever fundraising product they were selling, we had to tell those sweet little faces 'no'.  But later on...

We are able to give to others while still meeting our own needs.  There is savings in place for emergencies and beyond.  I have been able to leave my job to be a homemaker.  But best of all, the discipline has trained us how to spend money well.  We go out to eat, but we use half price deals.  We buy clothes, but hardly ever at retail price.  Doing the hard things 'at the time' develops righteousness and peace 'later on'. 

I encourage you to work at whatever difficult task God has appointed for you at this time knowing that later on, the harvest will be well worth it.