Planting of Seeds

Introduction
“I am somebody.” Those words have stuck with me for a lifetime. Whenever I was slipping into self-pity, Mrs. Irma Davis would shake a finger at me and sternly recite that phrase, adding, “Never forget it.” I haven’t. Mrs. Davis was a counselor at the Needle’s Eye Christian Counseling Center in Youngstown, Ohio. As a youngster, I often dropped in there when I was feeling lost and worthless. Along with being an endless well of God’s love, she was a constantly flowing fount of pithy, inspirational nuggets of wisdom. She had a knack for finding just the right words to give a lift when you needed it most. She knew that everyone had troubles in life. But how we think about those troubles can make the difference between learning and growing from them versus being crushed by them. Troubles don’t mean I’m a nobody. Instead, they can be a means for becoming somebody even better than I am today.
As I matured, I realized that Mrs. Davis’s nuggets of wisdom were like seeds planted in my soul. Their message grew within me and guided me on my life’s journey. As I assumed roles of greater responsibility, I realized that I was planting seeds in others, just the way that Mrs. Davis had planted seeds in me. That realization motivated the writing of this book.
Mrs. Davis was merely one of many inspiring mentors that I have encountered who have left an indelible mark on the man I am today. People like John Smith, my first supervisor, and Albert Marinelli and James Rozzi, patient and faithful teachers, gave me the confidence and skills to become a successful leader. Additionally, I can’t forget Sister Rena from Saint Elizabeth Hospital. Every day when I cleaned her office, she would encourage (some might say nag) me to take classes. Even though I didn’t have much confidence in myself and felt scared to try, Sister Rena signed me up for every course available to employees. Her encouragement led me to truly believe in myself. She taught me that when you plant positivity in someone’s life, you can change their perspective, regardless of their circumstances.
Today, as the Director of Environmental Services at a large urban hospital, I regularly see people who remind me of myself in years past. I feel a strong sense of obligation to plant those same seeds of positivity in them that Mrs. Davis, Sister Rena, John Smith, and others planted in me. With this book, I want to spread seeds of encouragement and touch as many lives as possible by sharing my story. I want to bring hope and compassion to the community I serve. I’m passionate about showing people how to nurture their seeds of faith, help those in need, and recognize the untapped potential within themselves and others. Together, we can celebrate the fruits of our hard work! I hope to inspire others to become servant leaders who can make a real impact on the world.
I hope my readers find spiritual strength within these pages and become energized to inspire others! I want them to dream big and realize how planting positive seeds is perhaps the most important contribution we can make to our families and communities. As leaders, we play a crucial role in helping one another achieve our mutual goals, and I want everyone to embrace that!

Chapter 1: The Parable
As with most fourth-grade classrooms, an American flag, a line of presidential portraits, and encouraging little mottos like “You are a shining star” graced the front wall of Miss Burney’s room at Monroe Elementary School in Youngstown, Ohio. Or at least they did in 1970, when I was a student there. Well intentioned adornments, I’m sure, meant to inspire us to set high goals, study hard, and accomplish great things. Classroom realities, however, frequently fall well short of lofty ideals.
If you happened to drop in on that class, you would have seen me, Lonnie Clinkscale, sitting alone in back. Semi-isolation was thought best for me since most of the attention I received from other students was demeaning. I was an easy target. My clothes were grungy and stinky, and a learning disability made my speech slow and stuttering, traits that aroused no end of mocking laughter from my classmates. Often, I was shuffled off to special classes for students with intellectual challenges. “Retard classes,” the kids called them. Although the teachers usually meant well, their attempts to help frequently left me with a sense of hopelessness, as if I would never amount to anything in life. The same was true of my parents, who mistakenly thought they could embarrass me into “getting over” my academic impairments. My father was a gruff steel-mill worker with little patience for what he considered nonsense, which included the Fs that typically filled my report cards. One time, he slapped a newspaper dunce cap on my head, pronounced me “dummy,” and plopped me into my sister’s highchair. “I am a dummy. I like peanuts,” he forced me to repeat while sitting there in utter humiliation.
By today’s standards, I was the victim of bullying, if not downright abuse. My childhood, experts would likely say, was filled with trauma and assaults on my self-esteem. While there may be some truth in this, that’s not the way I want you to think about it. I want you to think of my experiences as seeds. Wherever we go in life, we are always planting seeds and seeds are always being planted in us. My parents, teachers, and classmates were planting seeds in me back then. Sadly, many of those seeds were damaging and could have borne poisonous and rotten fruit. I witnessed many examples of that fruit. The abuse my mother suffered at my father’s hands plunged her into a depression while my older brother ran the streets robbing and drug dealing. My good fortune to have found a different path in life is a testament to the positive seeds that others planted along the way. I am a blessed man. The bad seeds are but a small part of my life’s story. The good seeds have been far more bountiful.
This book isn’t about blaming others for what they did decades ago. Instead, it’s about what we do now and in the future. It’s about compelling us to think more deeply about how our words and actions can have profound, enduring effects on those around us. Wherever we go, whomever we encounter, we’re sowing seeds, even if we don’t always recognize it. Ultimately, we shall reap what we have sown.
A Lesson from a Boat
Like me, you may have religious sentiments. But even if you’re not, there is a historical fact no one can deny. Around 2,000 years ago, a young man walked the earth sowing seeds with both deeds and words. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jewish rabbi to whom the people flocked, seeking wisdom and encouragement. On some occasions, those crowds grew so massive that Jesus had to find innovative ways of communicating to them (no doubt the growing crowds also caught the wary gaze of Roman authorities who would ultimately consider Jesus a political threat). One such occasion is recorded in three of the New Testament Gospels (New International Version [NIV], 2014, Mark 4:1–20; Matt 13:1–23, Luke 8:4–15), where we are told that the crowd’s size forced Jesus to board a boat on the Sea of Galilee and teach from offshore.
Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge (New International Version, 2014, Mark 4:1).
Had you been among the crowd on that sunny, sandy shoreline you would hae heard one of Jesus’ most famous parables: the sower. Calling from the boat Jesus began, “Listen!” The crowd quieted to hear the master’s words.