Soil Test

I was recently reading in a magazine called Homeschool Today when i ran across this statement by the publisher Steve Murphy. He wrote:

"(our prayer is) not that you will read this issue and want to become gardeners, but that after having dirtied your hands in the rich fertilizer of these pages, you'll be reminded that you already are a gardener and that your children are the soil in which you invest your life. Add to that soil daily the rich, life-giving Word of God. Develop a hatred for weeds and rocks. Work it diligently with careful planning and deliberate action. Finally, just as we do with our earthly gardens, watch with anticipation and thank God for his faithfulness when the fruitful harvest comes in."

Wow- another great garden analogy. The Bible refers to gardens and gardening many times in relation to our earthly lives. I encourage you to look some of them up!

This should be the overall picture we have in mind as we walk down the path of parenting and tend the soil of our children's lives. Not how we choose to school them or whether or not they go to college or even how much money we have, but that we richly fertilize a love of God in them. That they see it daily in our actions and words.

So, what does your soil look like? Is it full of weeds and rocks like material things, the love of money, and worldliness or is it full of the fruitfulness and abundance that can only be found in Lord. Do your children know that all that is important is a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, not toys, not movies, not school, not fame or fortune, nothing?

What do you plant in their soil? The fruits of the spirit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control? Or do you plant greed, selfishness, materialism, glutony, immaturity, disobedience, and rebellion?

We are the gardeners, they are our garden.

Do not let your garden wilt and die! Choose to reap a bountiful harvest!