Leading and Weeding {Little Ones}

Since moving to our new home, I’ve been determined to stay on top of weeding the many lovely gardens. I made the sad mistake of letting the beautiful gardens ‘go’ at our last home and it did seem, once the weeds took over, it was incredibly hard for this non-gardening, black thumb girl to get back on track.

And yet, now as the flowers grow and weeds sprout just as fast every time I kneel down and begin pulling those nasty weeds out of our new gardens surrounding our country home, I can hear the Holy Spirit … very clearly, asking me why I am so worried about the pesky weeds in our earthly home when spiritual weeding needed to be taking place in our family … eternal weeding … versus earthly weeding … what was more important? That I have a beautiful, weed-free garden surrounding our farmhouse or that the ‘weeds’ in my own life – and my children’s lives – were taken care of …?

My utmost  heart-felt desire is to lead my little ones to the Cross.
To know they are saved. To see Jesus come alive to them. Everything I do as a mom – fun crafts, exciting field trips, regular day chores, faithful homeschooling – it all trivial compared to teaching the girls about their Heavenly Father and developing their own personal relationship with Jesus.

As a mom, how much time do I spend doing earthly tasks when I neglect the eternal chores of weeding?

Like teaching our little ones about God – God, in *everything* that we do.
Praying instead of worrying.
Thanking instead of complaining.
Teaching instead of tearing down.
Pulling out the spiritual weeds instead of allowing them to grow so big that I look back and realize I cannot even reach my children’s hearts.

 

This was it.

In my spiritual weeding journey, I just knew we had to get down to the basics, the foundation of everything — Bible reading.

Yes, we read the Bible already – and we do devotions, but it is easy to be distracted in this silly life.
Reading together is an integral part of our family life. It’s part of our bedtime routine and part of our breakfast time … we have ready many devotions. I have a bookshelf full of various studies for the children and I and yet I know, the best book, the MOST important reading material is the Bible.
We have never done it from cover to cover. That needs to change!

 

 

 

 

I prayed about it. I asked God how do I do this with the girls? How do I go through the whole Bible with the girls? Wouldn’t it be hard to understand? Or a little graphic in some parts? And would the three year old listen? Would it be, dare I say it … boring?
But the more I prayed about it, the more I could hear God telling me it’s time. RIGHT NOW. It’s time to stop wasting time and time to stop figuring out a schedule. Our oldest is 10 years old – she needs to hear the Scriptures and not just the Awana-version – she needs to hear the Scriptures from start to finish. I want my children to teeth on the Word, to hear it and learn in their little minds, to know it, to question it, to *want* to read it every.single.day. To fall asleep at night with the freshly-read Scriptures imprinted on their minds.

And  it’s so simple to start.

We just opened the Book.

We began in Genesis. And we will finish in Revelation.

I am determined. We will make room in our day for this.

Our plan? To read three chapters every day. That means it will take us 396 days to read through the Bible together – from cover to cover. Start to finish. Genesis to Revelation.

We will read our regular devotions in the morning together at breakfast.

 

 

… and we will read the three chapters from the Bible at night before bed. Or maybe it will be in the r.v. while camping. Or in the car as we travel back from grandparents in an audio version. Or around the campfire in the summer. Or mid day during a quiet afternoon …

But this is all part of my job in the gardening and leading of little ones …

 

Let the weeds grow around the outside gardens, but let me not ignore the spiritual weeding in my own life. Leading and weeding – what better way to start than to immerse ourselves in God’s word …

 

 

Jesus told them another parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²
When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”
“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds
and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom.
The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels,
and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Matthew 13:24-43

P.S. I’m hoping to do some posts on how to get the Word into your child’s daily life through way of music and audio stories.
There are some fantastic resources out there!
Stay tuned! It is never too late and never, ever too early.
Also, listen here for some timely, wonderful encouragement!