The Lord began to speak to me, "What do you see?" "I see the rock hitting the water and the ripples spreading out." "What are you thinking of?" "Influence, Lord, spreading in ever widening circles. Is this what is happening for our church?" He answered, "Yes but you are only seeing the surface effect."

I thought about that and continued to pray. As I did the Lord began teaching me. "Remember I look on the inside, not just the outside. you are seeing only the surface results. Anytime a stone hits the surface the ripples spread, but beneath the surface where you cannot see is where real change happens. There as the rock sinks and settles into the soil, or mud, the floor of the pond is forever changed. Something new has been added, something has been moved around, a mark has been made, even though it seems small there has been a real, lasting change. The same is true for the seeds you sow. You see only the small indentation in the earth, later you see the harvest or blossoms of the seeds, but you don’t see the change beneath the soil that brings the blossom."

We walk with a great deal of influence every day for good or bad. We cannot always see the deep effect of our influence but God does. It is He who works far beneath the surface, bringing the final, lasting, change, caused by the influence we sow.