our children will eventually produce fruit,
but what we often don’t realize is that
today’s seeds hold the key to the fruit they
will produce tomorrow and even years from
tomorrow. But they will produce absolutely
nothing if we do not prepare the soil and
continue to sow seeds day in and day out.
Don’t give up! Harvest time will come!
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for
in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not.” (Galatians 6: 9)
In these early years, I have both overestimated and underestimated that which is
required in the caretaking of my little ones’
fertile ground, and lazy weeding has
produced a lack of character growth.
Overestimating
Here’s a little sad-but-true story to illustrate
what I am talking about. We normally have
all of our children with us in service at
church, but after baby Jacob was born, I
needed to nurse him, so I would take my
two little girls ( 5 and 3) and the baby and
we would head to the Sunday School class
together. Recently, the teacher was
discussing Noah’s ark, and at first I
thought, “What child doesn’t know about
Noah and that huge boat of his?” But then
the teacher began to ask specific questions
about how many days it rained and what the
rainbow meant, and I was shocked and even
embarrassed to realize that my two little
girls had no idea what the answers were.
I was shocked because I knew I had
taught it to all my older children and they
knew all the details very well; I just
thought that the younger ones knew all
these things too. I overestimated their
knowledge. Somehow, with my focus on
my older children, my younger ones were
falling through the cracks. As our family
had grown, I had not maintained the same
consuming focus on the Bible with these
younger ones. I knew at that moment that I
had better change that and change it
quickly—not just so that they will know all
the neat Bible stories that kids this age
love, but so that they will know the God of
the Bible and will love Him and love His
Word, so that seeds of Scripture would be
sown into their hearts. I can’t leave the
sowing to someone else.
Underestimating
What I always underestimate is the fact
that they are like sponges at this age. We’ve
heard that and seen it in our own children,
so why don’t we take advantage of that
fact? We should be pouring into our children the seeds of God’s Word for memorization and for wisdom, so that as they
grow, those seeds will grow and do their
work in those little hearts.
My lame excuse has been busyness,
but it has really proven to be laziness. I
have not been intentional in the things I
desire for them to learn. And, if I am not
intentional, if I don’t deliberately plan to
soak them in the Word, it won’t happen
by accident. If I don’t make time to pour
into them, no one will, and I will lose for
time and eternity the golden moments,
those opportunities to plant seeds in that
rich soil, which is so ready to receive
those seeds.
“The sluggard will not plow by reason of
the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest,
and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20: 4)
This is an age when we can start
Scripture memorization with them and
show them the necessity of intimate
prayer. We can read the Bible aloud to
them just like we read aloud other books
that we love.
Lazy Weeding
Lazy weeding means that I am sometimes
slack in disciplining and admonishing
consistently. If I do not faithfully and diligently “weed” that rich soil, I just might be
totally embarrassed by their behavior, and
worse yet, my children may become
unteachable. The weeds of self-will pop up
everywhere at this age, and if they are not
uprooted each time, they will take hold and
take over and choke out anything else we
try to plant.
There are times when I have been
humiliated by something my child said or
did, and then I have to look at the root of
the problem, which usually pointed to my
lack of care in that area of their lives. I had
let things go. I didn’t stay on top of pulling
that weed. I was busy and left them to
themselves for too long. I didn’t deal with
it at home on a regular basis, so I was
publicly embarrassed by it. The Scripture
makes this point perfectly clear: “The rod
and reproof give wisdom: but a child left
to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”
(Proverbs 29: 15)
However, when we pour the Word into
their little hearts and pull the weeds of self-
will, we will see growth. The peaceable
fruit of righteousness will begin to form
little shoots in their hearts and lives. These
precious little ones no longer will bring us
to shame, but instead they will honor us and
be a blessing to others, yielding good fruit.
“Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12: 11)
