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The Seeds of Love: Lessons in Relationships and Faith

The Curious PilgrimLeave a comment

When I was a boy growing up on a small farm in Greene County, Mississippi, my father gave me a handful of corn seeds and told me to plant them beneath an old oak tree. I had asked him why we couldn’t grow crops in the cool shade rather than out in the hot sun. Dad just smiled, handed me the seeds, and let me discover the answer for myself.

As you might expect, the corn never grew under that tree. What I didn’t realize then was that my father was planting more than just corn—he was planting a lesson. Over the years, that experience became a powerful image for me: some truths, like seeds, take time to grow and bear fruit.

The First Seed: Four Basic Relationships

After high school, I enrolled at Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee (now Welch College). There, Dr. Leroy Forlines taught a course on Biblical Ethics that left a lasting impression on me. He said there are four basic relationships in every human life:

  1. Our relationship with God
  2. Our relationship with others
  3. Our relationship with ourselves
  4. Our relationship with the universe (the world and creation around us)

At the time, I understood these words only on an intellectual level. It wasn’t until years later—and after some failed relationships and painful lessons—that I began to grasp their true meaning.

The Second Seed: Love as the Heart of Faith

Thirty years later, while studying at Memphis Theological Seminary, another professor, Dr. Barry Bryant, built upon the foundation Dr. Forlines had laid. Dr. Bryant challenged us to see the Bible through one central theme: “Love God and love your neighbor.”

He helped me to realize that life is not primarily about rigid rules and laws but about how we live in relationship with others. Loving God fully means loving with every part of who we are—our physical, spiritual, rational, and emotional selves.

Jesus simplified it even further:

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:31)

Dr. Bryant pointed out something that profoundly shifted my understanding: before we can truly love our neighbor, we must also learn to love and value ourselves. Only then can we extend genuine, grace-filled love to others.

The Growth of the Seed

Looking back, I see how these “seeds” of wisdom were planted at different stages of my life. At first, they lay dormant beneath the surface, like that corn beneath the oak tree. It took time, experience, and even hardship for them to take root and grow.

The lesson is simple yet transformative: our faith is lived out through relationships.

  • Our relationship with God is the source of our strength and guidance.
  • Our relationship with ourselves shapes how we see and treat others.
  • Our relationship with others is where our love is tested and expressed.
  • Our relationship with creation reminds us of our responsibility to care for the world around us.

Living Out the Lesson

Today, I strive to live with this understanding: loving God means loving people. It means listening with compassion, forgiving freely, and walking humbly. It means seeing others—not as problems to fix or enemies to defeat—but as fellow travelers on life’s journey.

Just as that corn needed sunlight to grow, our relationships need the light of God’s love. Without it, they wither. With it, they flourish and bear fruit.

So, I ask myself daily: Am I planting seeds of love today? Am I nurturing them so they can grow into something life-giving?

Order in Mind, Life, and Dress

The Curious PilgrimLeave a comment

When I was a freshman at Free Will Baptist Bible College (now Welch College), Dr. Judy Simpson, my English professor, taught me a lesson that has never left me. She graded our essays not only on grammar but on our ability to organize our thoughts around a theme. She often reminded us, “A messy mind means a messy person, and a messy person means someone who will sweep the dirt in a room under a rug rather than into a dustpan.”

At the time, it seemed like a clever way to encourage her students to write carefully. But in truth, she was pointing to something much deeper: the way we think and the way we live are inseparably connected. Disorder in the mind leads to disorder in the life. Carelessness in thought easily becomes carelessness in action. And dishonesty in small things—like sweeping dirt under a rug—can point to a pattern of avoiding the hard work of living with integrity.

Over the years, I have come to see that this same principle extends into many parts of life, even into how a person dresses. Clothes may seem superficial compared to grammar or moral character, but they, too, reflect something about the state of the mind and the heart.

Dressing well does not mean dressing expensively. It does not require the latest fashions or brand names. What it does require is care. A clean shirt, pressed slacks, a modest dress, polished shoes—these simple acts of order and attention say something about who we are. They say, “I value myself. I respect others. I take seriously the life I have been given.”

On the other hand, when someone constantly presents themselves as sloppy, careless, or indifferent in appearance, it often points to an inward disorder as well. Just as an essay with no structure reveals a wandering mind, and a floor with dust swept under the rug reveals a lack of honesty, so a disheveled and neglected appearance may reveal neglect within.

Of course, clothing alone cannot measure the worth of a person. Some of the poorest have dressed with the greatest dignity, while some of the richest dress with the least respect. The point is not wealth, but intention. Our outward dress can be, in its own way, an essay of the soul. Each day, as we put on our clothing, we are also putting forth a statement: This is how I choose to carry myself in the world.

Dr. Simpson was right—discipline of mind shows itself in every corner of life. In our writing, in our homes, in our work, and even in how we dress, order and care reflect the deeper truth of who we are. To live with honesty, integrity, and clarity is to refuse to sweep life’s dust under the rug, but instead to face it, clean it, and carry ourselves with respect.

A Biblical Reflection

Scripture often uses clothing as a symbol for character. Paul writes, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Peter exhorts believers not to rely merely on outward adornment but to cultivate “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:4).

These words remind us that while outward neatness and order matter, they are ultimately signs of an inward clothing that is far more important. Each morning, as we put on our garments, we are also invited to put on Christ—to let His character cover us and shape us. Clean clothes can reflect a clean conscience, but only when we live truthfully before God.

So whether in our essays, our homes, our dress, or our relationships, the call is the same: to live as people of integrity, who do not hide life’s dust under the rug but who face it with honesty, humility, and the grace of Christ.