Don’t pick the fruit before it’s ripe.

“The seed of your dream will blossom in its appropriate time. Discouragement is expecting your harvest before it is due.” -Dr. Mark Chironna

Sometimes it is difficult to be patient and wait for our harvest to develop. We sow seeds throughout our life into different areas expecting to reap a harvest. We sow into our children and their future, our finances (savings and investments), education, career advancement, passions, dreams, etc. When we sow our time, money, and effort into these areas of our lives, at some point we all expect a return, but when, that is the real question.

Just like farming or gardening, if you harvest too early you most likely will end up with fruits and vegetables that are not ripe, small in size, and not very flavorful. I remember as a kid picking apples off a tree mid-summer. I knew the apple was smaller in size, but I expected the flavor to be the same. When I bit into the apple, my lips puckered tightly and my eyes watered as it was the sourest apple I had ever tasted. So, I ended up throwing the apple to the ground completely disappointed.

As we sow into our garden of passions and dreams, it is just at the right time, if we are faithful to do our do diligence in maintaining and caring for them, they will blossom, flourish, and bring about great fruit. It is only in our expectation and lack of patience in the process, that we become discouraged; forgetting it is in the very process where growth, maturity, and beauty come.

Be encouraged today, at just the right time, “the seed of your dream will blossom,” and you will reap the most amazing harvest, the fulfillment of a lifetime. Psalm 126:4-6 states, “Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy! …Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”