Seeds are amazing. Within every seed is the genetic material needed to create a whole plant. A single seed in the crevice of a rock with enough soil, sun and rain, can produce a tree that will split the rock as it grows. Little by little, as the roots and trunk grow, they push the solid stone apart. This is the power of one seed.
In many ways, words are like seeds. Every word has the power to produce good fruit or to break what seems solid apart. Whether I want to acknowledge it or not, I am a planter of seeds. With each patient I see in the clinic, my words serve to either build them up or tear them down. There is very little neutral ground. It’s my choice how I use my words. Unless I totally isolate myself from others, I sow either positive or negative messages with my words and my actions everyday.
In all our conversations, we each have a powerful choice: to give messages of love or hate, 
joy or gloom, peace or discord, patience or intolerance, kindness or cruelty, goodness or corruption, faithfulness or betrayal, gentleness or harshness, self-control or greed. The seeds we plant give rise to either good fruit or bad.
At a recent writer’s conference I attended in Michigan, one of our speakers, Erin Taylor Young shared with us profound words. “You may be able to count the number of fruit on a tree,” she said, “but you can’t count the number of fruit that could potentially be produced from one seed.” One seed produces one tree. However, that tree produces thousands of seeds that then become thousands more trees. The possibilities are exponential and endless. Never underestimate the power of one seed.
When Caroline Wagner, a missionary of Operation Classroom, spoke at my church about my friend, Shadrach, she planted one seed. She had no idea the magnitude of her choice of words that day. But God did. When we are obedient and speak words of life, His Spirit is like ‘Miracle Grow’ for the seeds we plant. Jesus said, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”1
Author, Andy Andrews, wrote in his book, The Lost Choice, “You have been created with the ability to change the world. Every single choice you make…every single action you take…matters. But remember. The converse is also true. Every choice you do not make…every action you do not take…matter just as much!” This statement is both frightening and exciting.
God has an overarching plan that will come to fruition. However, our individual choices affect the manner in which that plan becomes a reality in the lives of those in our circle of influence. Do we take our choices for granted and lessen their importance?
My words greatly impact the people in my world. I realize this fact and take it seriously. Do I always make the right choice of seeds I plant? No, I fail every day. But even if just a few seeds fall on fertile soil and trees grow from those seeds, the amount of fruit will be amazing. God is the one in charge of the growing. All He asks of me is to be a faithful planter.
1Matthew 17:20
