har·vest //ˈhärvist

– the consequence of an effort or activity
– the season for gathering crops
– the yield from plants in a single growing season
– the gathering of a ripened crop
– gather, as of natural products

The harvest is the time when you reap what you sow. As a verb, to harvest something means that you pick or gather it. You might harvest your sweet corn late in the summer.

To our family, harvest is a sweet, sweet time in our year.

It’s a time when we highlight what we have done.
It’s a time when we look at our seeds sown over the year and talk about reward on those seeds sown.
Harvest time is a reward – a reward on time invested and an expected return.

God makes a promise to us through the harvest. In Luke 6:38, He said,

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Not many people go around doing things because they WANT and expect the good deed to come back to them, or at least, they shouldn’t. However, doing good things…sewing good seeds, always has a return. We never know when that return will come, but God promised that it would. It’s a very basic “rule” in living.

Before children, my husband and I had our own outlook on the word ‘harvest’. While it hasn’t changed for him and I, it has changed in the way we express the meaning. After all, having four very young kids, they can’t understand fully what it means to sew good seeds with the expectation that God will fulfill his promise. So, we look at it in a way, with child-like faith, and believe that all good things will eventually come back. It may come back in another good deed, it may come back in a reward, or it may even come back monetarily.

Being a good person always has a reward. If nothing else, it makes you feel good in your heart. That’s the basic concept we’ve communicated to our children: Feel good in your heart and that is reward enough!

Your Turn

What does harvest mean to your family? How do you celebrate together during this time of year?

Shannon McAvoy

Shannon is much more than a 7-letter name. Her life consists of three little ladies and an amazing husband of 11+ years. Outside of her blogging life at thesimplemoms.com and itsallpink2me.com, you can find her hovering over anything chocolate and peanut butter then running it off whenever she has a chance. Running fills her cup so she can take care of the family God has blessed her with. She is a wordy, type-A, OCD Momma who loves fashion, running, cute babies and more importantly her family and her God. {Life motto :: Phil 4:13}