Planted in Sandy Soil Planted in Good Soil
Both sets of cucumbers came from the same batch and looked the same when I planted them. I took the advice of others to plant my cucumbers against a fence so they would grow up it, but I noticed one was growing more and just looked more healthy.
Anyway, a neighbor in the agriculture business said that the reason the cucumbers grew differently was probably the soil. The garden where I have been planting vegetable had good dark, wormy soil but against the fence where the cucumber had the place to climb had really sandy, light soil.....
Lately, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about how parents can and do raise children to have a godly character. I desire nothing more than for my children to desire God and have a character that glorifies Him. But HOW is it done?
From my cucumbers I got a awesome visual of how important providing good "soil" for our children is. So was is this "soil", I think it's our strong, loving relationship with them. It's how we show we love them in play, structured times and times of correction. It's why we need to invest time in them!
A couple of resources for me have been other moms. One of these is a blogger and I've just really appreciated some of her insights into raised sweet, godly children. Here is a link to her insights on developing character: Leading Little Hearts Home. Another has been a book I picked up at our local library called "The Joyful Homeschooler", I've enjoyed the book although I know I differ from the author on a lot of matters (so I'm not sure if I recommend it). Another one is Parent's Guide to Spiritual Growth of Children by Focus on the Family which I've also just started to get into (and will let you know what I think, if you're interested).
And since one of our desires for our kids is for them to be strong followers of Christ, it's only fitting that in Matthew when the seeds of salvation are scattered, only the ones planted in good soil are the ones with the strongest roots and produces an abundant crop (Matt. 13:1-8)!!!
... quickly back to the cucumbers... this week I decided to "rescue" them and plant them in my little side vegetable garden. They won't have the fence to climb and by the end of the growing season they're might not be a lot of room for them to stretch out..... but at least they will have the good soil:) Hmmm... I wonder if hat has anything to teach a "young" parent ;)
1 comment:
Oops! As one of those people who told you to plant it near the fence, I guess I forgot to tell you to prepare the soil. Sorry hope they survive the transfer.
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