Spring garden planting time always brings back a flood of Amish childhood memories for me. Some are fun memories filled with happiness, and some memories are better left in the past!

The cool freshly prepared soil under my bare feet always assured me that it was springtime. It was exciting to have a huge fresh plot of ground ready to receive the large variety of seeds my mother wanted me to plant.

First, my siblings and I had to use the hoe to carve out deep furrows from one end of the garden to the other for the planting rows. There was usually a contest to see who could make the straightest rows. I may have won a time or two, but I don’t really remember! My older sister was probably more of a perfectionist than I was. By the time we had made forty rows, we really didn’t care so much about our contest anymore! The rows had to be approximately three feet apart to allow the one horse cultivator to be used later to help keep the weeds down.

Next came the easy part of dropping the seed seeds into the furrows. This was not done in just any random fashion, but rather they were carefully spaced so as not to waste the seeds since there were many rows to fill. There would be numerous long rows of green beans, sweet corn, peas, and potatoes. Also, a few rows of beets and cucumbers, along with all the cabbage, tomatoes, and pepper plants. We hardly ever planted flowers unless there was a rare extra corner.

In my young mind, it felt like we were planting a whole field of vegetables. I often wondered if we really needed that much. My parents couldn’t afford to buy vegetables from the store, and like most traditional Amish families, we lived off the land. It took a lot to feed ten hungry kids! We needed an abundant crop that could be preserved for the winter month as well.

But did my mother forget that someone would have to pick all those bushels and bushels of vegetables later? I was sure that those “someones” would be me, along with my five or six siblings. The old saying, “if you don’t work, you don’t eat” was no joke in our family home.

Sure enough, what seemed like in no time those very long rows were begging to be harvested. As expected, we picked hundreds of bushels (well, almost!) of peas and beans until we wondered if our backs would ever straighten back to normal again. But the great reward was sitting down to a delicious meal made entirely from the day's fresh harvest. The taste was certainly unbeatable! The sweet rewards of hard labor!

Honestly, more than vegetable seeds were planted in those developing years of my life. The Biblical concept of sowing and reaping was also being planted in my heart during those days. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7

Each spring as I plant my garden, I’m reminded of that important lesson - If we want to reap joy, peace, and love, we must sow accordingly!

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my book, The Greater Inheritance, to read more about my Amish childhood.