When I was younger, I remember elders in my family often saying, “You reap what you sow.” For the longest time, I thought this phrase was just about sowing seeds of wrongdoing and the wrath that came from them. All these years later, I realize to reap what you sow is not based in harm or good; it’s based in fact. When we sow love, peace, and compassion—love, peace, and compassion is what we find in return. When we sow hate, revenge, and scornful behavior, that, too, we will reap.

Joel Osteen once spoke of God’s grace being like a bamboo plant; it takes years for the roots of a bamboo plant to settle; it will look like no growth is occurring, but in year five, the plant can shoot to above eighty feet. I love this parable because the same is true for the seeds we sow in our own lives.

So often I have been tempted to move in a direction outside of love. I have been given seeds by others’ ineffective deeds—the seeds of vengefulness, attack, and ill will. We all have, at one time or another, been given these seeds, and it’s up to us whether we decide to sow them. I know for myself, despite the temptation, I meditate and work earnestly only to plant seeds of love.

We all can admit to falling short on this kind of planting from time to time, but what I know for sure is that despite circumstances that may arise, all of our seeds (good or bad) will come to bear fruit, and it will be incumbent upon us to accept the harvest of the seeds we have sown.