I refuse to mow my front yard. Last year I scattered the seed heads of dried wildflowers all over my yard and I have excitedly waited to see where they will come up. So far, the purple, pink, and white ones have made their appearance and this week the yellow ones have come up in a variety of places. It’s been exciting watching them appear and daily I drive up my driveway slowly noticing all of the newly opened blooms.

At the end of wildflower season last year, I was careful to scatter the seeds in certain locations. I intentionally threw some along the edge of the driveway and then mowed over a section and shot the dried seeds off in a vacant area of the yard. My dream is to have wildflowers covering my front yard and eventually have the whole front field taken over with them.

The thing about scattering seeds is that until they pop up the next season, I never know if my intentional scattering did any good. I hope that the seeds take root and grow, but I never know if my effort is worth it until I get a chance to witness the fruit.

Just like wildflower seeds, we have the opportunity to scatter seeds every day: seeds of kindness, gentleness, compassion, and love. We often have to wait on just the right time to scatter the seeds and be very intentional about the scattering. Sometimes we have no idea whether those seeds even took root until we see the fruit in someone else’s life-and that could take a really long time. It can be easy to get disheartened and frustrated. It can be easy to give up. It can be easy to quit scattering because we don’t know if the seeds are taking root.

But we must take the time to scatter these seeds because God’s timing is always the right timing. When he prompts us to encourage, we must encourage well. When he leads us to love others, we must love them well. And when he nudges us to scatter seeds into a hard to reach person’s life, we give it all we have and pray the whole way.

What seed is God leading you to scatter this week? Where does it need to land? Scatter your seeds well, my friends. We never know what growth God can produce in a person’s life if we never take the time to scatter the seeds.