The Tiny Seeds That Shape Your Life

The seed of passion is curiosity. The seed of perseverance is patience.

– RYDER CARROLL, The Bullet Journal Method

Thinking about what seeds grow into made me stop and ask: What am I planting? Which seeds are leading to good fruit—and which ones are growing weeds?

In a world where we buy food in cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic, a seed feels foreign or even outdated. But aside from meat, milk, and eggs, nearly everything we eat starts as a seed. It’s hard to see how a grain seed turns into ICEE cereal (yes, that’s real), but little seeds always produce a harvest—for better or worse. 

In the same way, our most deeply ingrained habits, thought patterns, and beliefs come from seeds that we planted, nurtured, and harvested. 

So let’s connect the dots between the seeds we plant and the lives we lead. Because at the end of the day, you don’t reap what you wish—you reap what you plant.

Compounding Growth

Here’s the reality: our daily seeds (micro-decisions) compound into a harvest (long-term character). It reminds me of a classic quote:

Watch your thoughts, they become words; Watch your words, they become actions; Watch your actions, they become habits; Watch your habits, they become character; Watch your character, it becomes your destiny

There’s a chain reaction that occurs in the seed-planting process (even if the destiny part is debatable). The little, gut-reaction thoughts we think lead to big actions we take. 

The worst actions you can think of can be traced to seeds of anger, lust, and greed.

The most noble people you know have planted seeds of good character that have bloomed into love, honesty, sacrifice, and loyalty.

Let’s make this personal.

Some Seeds I’m Planting (and Weeds I’m Uprooting)

I’ve been trying to identify the seed of patience, because I never seem to have enough. I’m not sure there’s a single seed, but here are a variety of seeds I’ve identified that lead to patience:

• intentional slowness
• noticing without reacting
• delayed gratification
• self-control
• non-reactivity
• embracing the process by taking things one day at a time

When I snap at my kids for not getting their shoes on fast enough or struggling to find their coat so we can get out the door, I’m planting a seed. And it isn’t just in my own heart—it’s in theirs as well. It’s the seed that says, “Dad can’t wait for me to do this myself” or “If I don’t do this right or fast enough, dad is going to get angry.” Those are not the things I want growing in my family.

Good fruit needs cultivation. Weeds? They grow wild from our worst impulses. That makes planting weeds easy. As for planting seeds that lead to healthy fruit? That requires intentionality, effort, and grace.

Here are a few examples of seeds, the habits that cultivate them, and the fruit or weeds that they bear:

Some of these bad seeds seem harmless—but they grow into thorns and thistles that are hard to uproot and even harder to live with. Some of the good seeds seem insignificant—but they lead to a harvest of righteousness.

What’s tricky is that the seed doesn’t look like the fruit. An apple seed looks nothing like an apple, and the seed of annoyance doesn’t look like anger, but they are deeply connected. The DNA of the plant is right there in the seed, and if we let it grow, it will produce something that is much harder to uproot and much uglier than a tiny seed.

In fact, Jesus talked about the fruit our lives bear and loved a good agrarian analogy.

What’s Jesus Say About Seeds?

Jesus seemed to be constantly talking about vineyards and vines, sowers and seeds, wheat and weeds, mustard seeds, and laborers in fields. He was communicating to an agrarian society. If he was speaking directly to a 21st century audience, he’d likely tell us to be careful about the things we screenshot or share or perhaps, “The algorithm will know them by their likes.” 

Alas, even the most urban among us understand what he meant when he said, “You will know them by their fruit.” (Matthew 7:16). Our words, our actions, our fruit is how we are known. Our fruit tells a lot more about us than we’d like to admit. 

If we’re known by our fruit, then we should care deeply about our seeds. Let’s sort that out together. 

How Do I Know What Seeds I’m Planting?

Sometimes the hardest part is figuring out which seeds led to the fruit you’re seeing. The fruit is visible, but the seed hides beneath our habits and inner patterns.

Here’s a simple way to trace what’s growing in your life back to its seed:

• Notice the fruit. What outcomes, attitudes, or emotions are showing up regularly—good or bad? What’s ripening in your life? Emotions—and the character traits behind them—are great indicators of the kind of fruit you’re growing. Here is a list of good traits to aspire toward: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23). And a brutal list of nasty ones from 2 Timothy 3:2–5: selfishness, greed, pride, arrogance, abuse, disobedience to parents, ungratefulness, unholiness, heartlessness, unforgiveness, slander, lack of self-control, brutality, hatred of good, treachery, recklessness, conceit, pleasure-seeking, and hypocrisy. 
• Name the pattern. What daily loop—thought or habit—is feeding that fruit or weed? What’s reinforcing it? What repeated action or mindset is feeding that outcome (fruit or weed)?
• Identify the seed. What’s the small, seemingly insignificant choice or belief at the root? What did you water (intentionally or not) that might be producing this?

You can also work backward from the fruit you want to see:

• Choose the fruit. What do you want more of? Joy? Peace? Focus? Faith?
• What blooms into that fruit? Identify the daily or weekly habits, ways of thinking, or little actions that over time can bear that fruit. If you want more joy, start with gratitude. Peace? Start with prayer. Focus? Start with self-control or limiting distractions.
• Plant deliberately. Find the smallest seed you can start planting today to move toward the harvest you hope for.

It takes time, prayer, and reflection—but a harvest is coming.

How Do We Tend Our Gardens?

Beyond just identifying the individual seeds that lead to fruit or weeds, the overall process for seeing how tiny decisions lead to big outcomes can be summarized like this:

1. Be aware: Notice what triggers your reactions, where your mind wanders, and what emotions rise up.

2. Cultivate: review what you observed. Decide what to plant more of—and what weeds to pull before they take root. Intentionally replace bad reactions and habits with seeds that germinate into good fruit. 

3. Stay patient: keep noticing, keep planting, and keep pruning, because things don’t grow overnight and weeds aren’t going to stop growing just because you picked as many as you could in a day.

We’re always planting, and eventually we will reap what we have sown. Let’s make it the kind of harvest that we’re proud to bring in.

For me, I know I need to keep planting intentional slowness—and letting my addiction to control die a little more each day.

What seeds do you most need to plant—and what in you needs to die so they can grow?