Lickley's Corners Baptist Church

Even if you have never planted a garden, you know that gardens require
work. From spring to fall gardeners are busy. They plant, weed, water,
and harvest.

   Children are tender young plants planted by God in the garden of your
family. He trusts their care to you. To you comes the seemingly endless
job of weeding and watering.

   The weeding and watering season is short. Children grow so quickly.
Before you know it, the time has come for harvest. God plucks them from
your family home and plants them somewhere new. What kind of person
will your child be when he leaves your home?

   Are you diligent about weeding? Weeding involves discipline and
correction. Ignore a lie here, a sassy attitude there, and those weeds
take root and become habits that may never be broken.

   Are you careful about watering? Children wilt without it. Watering
involves love and encouragement. It involves gratitude and praise for a
job well done.

As parents we need weeding and watering ourselves. As we daily read and
obey God’s Word, God works in us to make us more like His Son (cf. Rom.
8:29). As our children see us becoming more like Jesus, we give them good
examples to follow.

   A proverb a day will give God opportunity to weed and water. Proverbs
show us sins that need to be weeded. Proverbs show us the character
that God wants to grow in our lives.
Read and explain a daily proverb to your child. You will be weeding and
watering the soil of his heart.

God will work in your heart too.

Yes, harvest time, when God removes those children from your home and
plants them in their own will be bittersweet, but you will have the joy
of seeing your children follow the Lord. God may give you a double
blessing by planting grandchildren in those godly homes you had a part
in establishing, and when you see those grandchildren follow God, there
will be nothing bittersweet about it!