Hoe Your Own Row

Is it just me or does it feel like the world is more and more set on forcing us to compare ourselves every day? I cannot tell you how often I start a project, or a video, or a post and then think to myself "why am I even doing this, so and so does this better". Maybe that is even true; maybe someone else does it better, but that isn't a valid reason not to do it. The old phrase "Hoe your own row" came to mind last month when we were working in the garden and it has been hanging in the back of my mind ever since.

As I literally hoed my own row alongside Sharif and the kids I began to reflect on what the saying really means. I imagined my row, and Sharif's row. How differently we moved the dirt, and how even with those differences, both became beautiful and useful rows. Rows that would sustain the seedlings that we placed in them, and how those seedlings would bear fruit to feed our family. But what would have happened had I left my row and went to help him with his? Or worse, what if I had decided that because he could form his row faster, that I should just not hoe mine at all. Mine would have never gotten done, and although we could have still planted in mine, it would certainly produced less fruit that the plants in his.

That is when it really sunk in for me, that hoeing your own row isn't just about minding your own business, it's about nurturing your own present and future. It is being inspired by yourself and what you can create in your own time and your own way. It is knowing that even if someone else can hoe their row faster, or straighter, or higher, or "better" ,that your row is yours, and what you put into it is what you get out of it.

I'm working to take this lesson and weave it into the fabric of my life, because God gave me gifts that He gave to no one else. What I have to say, to show, and to share is valuable in a way that no one else has, and the same is true for each and every one of us. We all have a row to hoe, and how we choose to do it is on us, but spending time thinking about someone else's row does nothing but deplete our own harvest. So go out there, grab your hoe, and HOE YOUR OWN ROW, not for you, not for others, but for God, because He will value your work in ways that no one else ever could.