1 The next time Jesus taught beside Lake Galilee, a big crowd gathered. It was so large that he had to sit in a boat out on the lake, while the people stood on the shore.
2 He used stories to teach them many things, and this is part of what he taught:
3 Now listen! A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field.
4 While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds.
5 Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn't very deep.
6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have deep roots.
7 Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked out the plants. So they did not produce any grain.