Tilling the Soil of a Child’s Heart

My kids go to public school, but this year for the first year we are “homeschooling” the Bible with them. This spring when I studied Deuteronomy I was convicted. The Bible needs to be taught in the family unit. Scripture is clear that it is mom and dad’s responsibility to teach the bible to their kids. It didn’t seem like what we were doing was cutting it any more. The big kids (7, 6, and 3) were so familiar with the bible stories, they had almost become bored with listening, and that was the last thing I wanted. Over the summer I bought a Precepts children’s bible study, and it quickly became clear that the study was too advanced for my kiddos. As the summer drew to a close and the school year drew nigh, I searched the internet high and low for material. Though it may exist, I couldn’t find any resources for a public school family to use by doing a simple internet search. So I decided to see what the homeschool parents do. I found lots of resources, but settled on this: Bible Roadtrip.

Just to be clear, we have one perfectionist, one highly obnoxious whiner, and one super sweet baby doll in our family. So when we sat down for bible study tonight, the whiner whined, the perfectionist got frustrated because she made mistakes, and the baby doll got out of bed, joined us and screamed because she wasn’t included in the fun (even though she had her own separate preschool bible study already). It was heck, and Daniel and I could have quickly decided to look at the cards we were dealt and fold, but strangely, we kept playing the game, believing that God has called us to this. Kudos to the ones God calls to homeschool! Sincerely. Right away I am nervous to tell you of our plans, because what if I fail and fold like I so often do.

Tonight’s story was on the parable of the sower, and the four different seeds that the farmer sows. One on hard soil, one on thorny soul, one on rocky soil, and one on good soil. It was ironic that we started there. Daniel and I being the sowers, the seeds being the word of God, and the soil being the condition of my children’s hearts. To be honest, it didn’t seem like seeds were being sown on good soil tonight. As I left the room, God reminded me that farmers have to be patient and they also have to trust. They have to trust that God will provide sun and rain in the right amounts. They have to be patient when the seeds are sown. When a crop fails, there are things they can do to make the soil more apt to grow a good crop – till the soil, remove the thorny vines, remove the rocks, add the right amount of fertilizer, and sow the seeds again. Eventually a good crop will grow. We as parents just have to be faithful to sow the seeds. This encouraged my heart night. Hope it speaks to yours as well.

Be faithful to do the work of sowing and of preparing the soul – to make the conditions right for the seeds to grow.

For your enjoyment, this video was on my facebook feed at the time I wrote this, and it seem fitting to share:

How are you preparing your child’s heart to receive seeds?

 Photo credit: dbwalker