I was having a conversation with a co-worker one day regarding lawn care.    Besides being an excellent technical engineer, he has one of the greenest thumbs I know.    He let me in on a clever technique, "I like to throw grass seeds right after it snows.    As the ice melts, the ground becomes soft, and the seeds really go deep."

The spiritual significance didn't get to me until days later.    Christians have been doing the same thing for years.    Many times we present the salvation plan to a frozen heart, but upon the warmer season of God, they are thawed, and the seeds that were planted so long ago can take root.

I think a pitfall to the general character of man is his impatient attitude.    The human race has become a little too high-speed.    We want everything, right here and right now.    Fast food restaurants can offer a full meal in about 10 minutes or less, but we moan and groan when a fryer goes down and we have to wait an additional 5 minutes.

With that, the skill to cultivate is very rare.    We express intolerable attitudes towards long processes.    But the fact of the matter is, when you want a change to occur in people, it takes time.    Microwave prayers and presentations just won't cut it.    You re not always going to see immediate results.    It is consistent cultivation to a heart that inspires change.

If you don't know it yet, be advised that your life is a ministry and testimony to believers and un-believers alike.    People watch very closely to see if your words and your actions are lining up.    This is step one to witnessing, make sure you believe what you're trying to make someone else believe.

It is often said that it is the "little things that matter."    People already have a general concept of the do's and don'ts of Christianity.    Witnesses to your life are constantly comparing the ideal Christian life against what you are practicing on a day-to-day basis.    They see and note your misbehaviors, irresponsibilities, and hypocrisy.    And while we are all human, yes, it's the other side that we don't give them.    Often, we make the mess and we leave it there.    Do we clean it up?    Rarely.    We can be quick to lash out in sin, and slow to offer apologies for a moment of poor testimony.

Accepting reality is step two in proclaiming the gospel.    There are many truths to reality and some of them are: