Good morning…

When asked to teach a Sunday school class at Peachtree Road Methodist, I was given the topic. “How best do we pass along faith to our young adult children?” God shepherded the spirited group through an interesting lesson, creatively cultivating the soil of our hearts. After unpacking a plethora of parenting possibilities, we shifted our focus from ourselves as parents to the One Wise Parent, reading aloud the promises of God.

Then he (Jesus) told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13:3-9)

God reminds all of us:
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:9-11)

The Bible makes it clear: spiritual growth in our young adult children is not our doing. Our primary parenting task is prayerfully trusting God to throw and to grow seeds of faith within the hearts of our unique children. Paul explains the growth of faith in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8: I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (MSG) sums up our role as parents for children of all ages. Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

With Deuteronomy 6:6-9 we do our best, trusting our living LORD to do the rest.

…Sue…