What is the purpose of reaping what we sow? Is the purpose for us to learn from our mistakes,.........?

Question

...is it punishment (if it is something bad), or is it just a law that has no meaning. What about karma?

I am asking because I don't see a lot of people that realize they have received what they put out there and they keep doing the same things over and over again. I am speaking of bad things.

Just wondering what others think.

Thanks for all these wonderful answers. I asked this question because there is someone I grew up with who is now almost 80 years old. This person has mistreated many people and committed many crimes. He hasn't spent much time in jail. But I am watching him get so many of the same things he has put out there back. He doesn't realize that he is reaping. He has stolen money from people and now people are stealing from him. He has caused people to be homeless and he just lost his property and is now on the edge of being homeless himself. The list of things he has done and continues to do is to long to write.

It is amazing that he still continues these behaviors even though he has been in constant pain daily.

Thanks for the great insight. You all are wonderful!

Answer 1

there are consequences to our actions...be nice, others will be nice, or steal something, kill someone and land in jail.

we have choices on how to live...best to make good decisions for urself and others and live a good life.

Answer 2

I believe it in in the act of failure or succes the reaction you recieve is the reaping. Karma says that everything happens for a reason and happens the way it does no matter what. But in the systematic society we live in, we are programmed or evolved to watch and learn. Learning from ones own mistakes is the most difficult because noone likes judgement. If everyone would take bad criticism as well as they did the good, I do believe things would be easier on most. With that said, the human emotion is a hard subject that is still in its early stages. 6.5 billion people they say live on this earth and counting. That is alot of personalities.

Answer 3

I don't entirely understand your question. Within the the metaphor of reaping what you sow, I guess the purpose of the reaping is that, having invested your time sowing, you have to reap or else you'd die. It's like a farmer who plants bad seeds, even if the crop is bad he still needs to reap some kind of crop or else he'll starve to death. There isn't really much choice or purpose involved in the reaping part, it's all in the sowing. The purpose of not sowing bad things is that you can hopefully avoid reaping bad things.

Answer 4

I think it defines Karma pretty well, keeping in mind that Karma is a 'crop' that is slow to ripen, and may take many seasons. I think of reaping what we sow as a kind of accountability. People witness what you do, and actions speak louder than words. If people like the actions that they see they will help create more opportunity in your life.

Answer 5

Reaping what you sow is another way of saying that you get results from your actions. If you drink excessively, you get a hangover, If you speed, you get a ticket. On the other hand the results can be good for good behavior. I guess it could be likened to reward & punishment.

Answer 6

I believe that "you reap what you sew" can be applied to anything you do in life whether it be good or bad. It's like the A, B, C's of life.....your Attitude and your Behavior in any situation in life equals Consequences. If you do something good in life there's a guarantee that good is gonna come to you, and if you do something bad in life there's a guarantee that bad is definitely gonna come to you.................People may not realize why bad is coming to them but later on in their life there's gonna come a point where those people will sit back and think about why they had to face certain situations and why they reacted bad in certain situations, then they're gonna catch on and grasp what "Karma" is...............that's just my intake on "you reap what you sew".

Answer 7

Yeah, people are often too shortsighted to see the consequences of their actions, and too ignorant to make the connection when the consequences happen. I don't really have a solution, just agreeing with you and stating the obvious (another problem that a lot of people have, by the way).

Answer 8

Kharma works, but taking on a sense of responsibility concerning your reactions, and accepting the fact that every action has a reaction (even though it may not be the one you expect) will certainly help you through this bumpy life! Blessings!

Answer 9

What God is trying to say to us is this, if you live a life of taking and taking, and not giving back, when you expect to receive, you will not, I have found that it is easy to serve God and Hard to maintain. But everyday try to do my best, and walk with the Lord everyday. I always try to pray for the right things and to do the will of God, whatever it is he asks of me, and what he expects of me, for that day. Some people never get it. Because they choose to continue in their selfish ways.

Answer 10

You are correct. Some people are continual bad decision makers. The wise ones have someone help them with areas they are bad in. The foolish ones just want to blame everyone else for what is their own fault!

Answer 11

it can be seen as a warning that you should make wise decisions, investments, etc because we can choose our actions but we can't choose the rewards, or as you put it, the consequences of that action.

we're all human though, so we inevitably will make a bad choice somewhere along the line. we can only hope that those around us as well as ourselves think before acting.