You reap what you sow

I hate that expression. Maybe it's because my father used to say that to me all the time when I was a kid and he was unhappy with me.

Really what does it mean? Afterall you plant the seeds you water and cultivate and use fertilizer and pesticide and of course you have a bumper crop.

Nonsense, the winds come and new diseases come and hail comes and birds and things you have no control over, even plain bad luck just like life.

So really the saying is nonsense because it implies you work hard and everything comes out great for you.

Right? Or is there more to it and I'm missing something or did my father sell me a bill of goods?

i always thought that expression applied to simpler things.. like..

you go around hating.. you get hated..

Urban Dictionary: you reap what you sow

or...

You reap what you sow is a simpler of way of referring to a quote in the Biblical New Testament, in Paul’s letters to the Galatians. This is often just referred to as Galatians. Galatia was located in what is now Turkey, and Paul’s letters to the Christian communities that lived there remain important in Christian thought and theology. The specific quote in the King James Version of the Bible is “whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap.”

or...

You reap what you sow. also As you sow, so shall you reap. (formal)
something that you say which means everything that happens to you is a result of your own actions.

On the lighter side, how about some variations of that old proverb. My dad use to tell me, "son, you made your bed, now you can sleep in it".
My uncle has one I love, "you bought the bike, now you peddle it".:nono:

If you plant a BS seed expect it to turn into a BS tree.

The more I practice, the luckier I get

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Originally Posted by hoglahoo

The more I practice, the luckier I get

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Reminds me of, "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." :)

Pee in the wind and it comes right back at you?!!

A rolling stone gathers no moss. :beer2:

So my stepfather RIP used to always say let your conscience be your guide.........he was right.Works every time.........................stupid conscience anyway !:gaah:

I do that too, once in a blue moon .... as my Mom used to say. ;)

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

A rolling stone gathers no moss. :beer2:

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No,............but it sure gets a lot of groupies and record deals !...just kick me:rofl2:

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

No,............but it sure gets a lot of groupies and record deals !...just kick me:rofl2:

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Right now they should be getting social security. :gaah:

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Right now they should be getting social security. :gaah:

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DING DING DING!!!:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

So my stepfather RIP used to always say let your conscience be your guide.........he was right.Works every time.........................stupid conscience anyway !:gaah:

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he didn't happen to be a cricket did he?

Ha ha ha........nope....he was a scotsman from Knightswood Glasgow.......and I just realised how much I miss him.:o

It would appear this is just another biblical lie.

You certainly can't reap what you sow because those seeds have sprouted, or perhaps rotted, or the birds have eaten them up, or the sun scorched the plants, or the thorns chocked them up...
Even if you go back within a couple of days to recover the same seeds that you sow before they had gotten the chance to change much that wouldn't be reaping.

And in case the seeds have fallen on a good soil and produced a fully matured plant at harvest time you still reap something completely different than what you saw. Sure, it's usually the same species, probably mostly the same DNA, but at best it's the babies of the original seeds, definitely not the same thing that was sowed.

No matter how you look at it, it's just one of those 'tales'...

And now that I have planted my posting-seed I await to see what shall I reap :)

There's million terms and phrases and old saying for it, but what it really comes down to is the idea behind Karma. Good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people.

Anybody over the age of about 12 knows that in the practical sense (the religious sense is a completely separate topic) that the whole idea is a load of BS.

I've seen too many bad things happen to good people, and equally frustrating, I've seen too many good things happen to bad people.


However, my philosophy has always been this: I don't believe in karma, but I try very hard to behave as though I did, because I would rather live in a world where people really do get what they deserve.

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Originally Posted by gugi

It would appear this is just another biblical lie.

You certainly can't reap what you sow because those seeds have sprouted, or perhaps rotted, or the birds have eaten them up, or the sun scorched the plants, or the thorns chocked them up...
Even if you go back within a couple of days to recover the same seeds that you sow before they had gotten the chance to change much that wouldn't be reaping.

And in case the seeds have fallen on a good soil and produced a fully matured plant at harvest time you still reap something completely different than what you saw. Sure, it's usually the same species, probably mostly the same DNA, but at best it's the babies of the original seeds, definitely not the same thing that was sowed.

No matter how you look at it, it's just one of those 'tales'...

And now that I have planted my posting-seed I await to see what shall I reap :)

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Not so much a lie as more a story to help people understand a conncept I think. I don't think Paul was talking so much about farming do you? (Especially since he wasn't a farmer....)

Anyway it worked....because "You reap what you sow" is still a synonim for "you get what you work for" for a large part of earth's population....at least that part that comes from a nation with a Christian backround.

live by the sword.. die by the sword.

Since we are beating a horse to death here...this just shows that everyone has their personal interpretation of a given thing.Some see it as one way and others will believe what they want. Seems really pretty cut and dry though at least in my interpretation.Plant a bad seed and reap the benefits. Plant a good seed and reap the benefits. But of course some see black and white and others see a multitude of color.How's that fer a dead horse:deadhorse:Die you horse..you..you die now.

feed a stray cat and he'll keep coming back.. but if you teach him to fish..

wait.. nevermind.

If PT Barnum were still alive and you could teach a cat to fish.....you'd be rich.and then you could get him a cute lttle fishing hat with hooks and a Bass boat and..............Oh yea and while I'm on He who loses key to girlfriends apartment gets no new key.

oh goodness.. i'd love to see my cat wading out in the stream and fly fishing for trout.. that would crack me up.

I've always thought of it like this: if you think bad thoughts and practice bad habits, you'll become a bad person.

Most fables and sayings were warnings. A socioligist would say that our culture passes on our life lessons through anicdotes.

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Originally Posted by HNSB

If you plant a BS seed expect it to turn into a BS tree.

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That's exactly how I see it.

If you go to the store and start yelling at the cashier, don't expect to get a nice smile in return. - Your crappy attitude (the seed) reaped a p!ssed off cashier.

Now go into the same store, but be nice, smile and even compliment the cashier if you're in a really good mood. Chances are you'll get something better than a murderous look from her. Your great attitude (the seed) reaped a relatively happy cashier.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

So really the saying is nonsense because it implies you work hard and everything comes out great for you.

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No, I think the saying implies that IF you work hard things CAN come out great for you.

I agree that you can't control everything, and sometimes no matter how hard you work things turn to sh!t. It would be completely unfair to use the "reap what you sow" saying in this case and that person needs to be b!tch slapped.

But if you don't work hard when all the stars align for your project to work, chances are you missed an oppertunity for success and you have only yourself to blame if it all turns to sh!t.

Hang on............the Bigspendur sowed this seed....now he's got the last laugh as he's reaping what he's sowed......a bunch of us trying to dissect a simple saying. I feel like a turnip that just fell off the truck duh !!!!:gaah: That was it was it not ???

My dads favorite is probably 'make hay whilst the sun shines'

personally I quite like 'swings and roundabouts'

I really like all these sayings, I think you can convey a great deal with them.

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Originally Posted by vthomlinson

feed a stray cat and he'll keep coming back.. but if you teach him to fish..

wait.. nevermind.

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My wife knows about feeding stray cats... I have a porch full of them... And I didn't even feed the bastards...

Taking your logic a bit further then, a man who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.

So then, folks who live by the razor will...:thinking:

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Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Taking your logic a bit further then, a man who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.

So then, folks who live by the razor will...:thinking:

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...Have the smoothest faces around.

It sounds like tbs may be identifying more closely with Solomon's woes than Jesus' farming tips

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Vanity of vanities, saith the honemeister, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his honing which he honeth under the sun? One coti sharpens, and another coti dulleth: but the HAD abideth for ever.

- XLLesiastes 1

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Overheard a CH-47 instructor pilot ask a flight school student that couldn't hold his altitude " Damn son did you wake up and eat bowl of stupid flakes today" Everyone on the intercom system had a good chuckle.

AFAIC biblical quotes are many times all too true and reap what you sow is definitely one of them. "Be not deceived for God is not mocked, for whatsoever thou soweth, that shall you also reap." It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow but in the fullness of time it shall come to pass.

Gautama Buddha put it in a slightly different manner,"What we are is the result of what we have thought, is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts. If one speaks or acts with an impure thought, suffering follows one, like the wheel of the cart follows the foot of the ox." The whole sermon can be found here for those who are interested. IME many of these 'old sayings', particularly from biblical sources, are what are known as 'universal truths'. YMMV.

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

Hang on............the Bigspendur sowed this seed....now he's got the last laugh as he's reaping what he's sowed......a bunch of us trying to dissect a simple saying. I feel like a turnip that just fell off the truck duh !!!!:gaah: That was it was it not ???

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Now that depends on if you see the glass of water half full or half empty and by the way, which way of looking at that is right or does it not matter or is it just perspective or what does it say about the person who says one or the other-har har.

another couple of favorites I use all the time

people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones (although I would probably just mutter, people in glass houses . . .)

and let he who is without sin cast the first stone

This is one of my fathers favorites, I used to hear it all the time, basically it means if you tick the old man off, he is going to plant a boot in your backside! Ahhh ... the memories!

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

This is one of my fathers favorites, I used to hear it all the time, basically it means if you tick the old man off, he is going to plant a boot in your backside! Ahhh ... the memories!

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Reminds me of an old saying from my days as a union ironworker,"Don't overload your ass with your mouth." :eek:

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Now that depends on if you see the glass of water half full or half empty and by the way, which way of looking at that is right or does it not matter or is it just perspective or what does it say about the person who says one or the other-har har.

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Two words......Turnip truck.:rofl2::rofl2:

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

This is one of my fathers favorites, I used to hear it all the time, basically it means if you tick the old man off, he is going to plant a boot in your backside! Ahhh ... the memories!

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Booooyeeeee you got that right !!:rofl2: