Preparing the Soil of Our Children’s Hearts

Image from Microsoft

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading little chunks of the book, Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson {Sally Clarkson’s husband}. This is a book that is currently out of print, but I purchased used from Amazon and am so thankful that I did.

So often I know that we are looking for that perfect ‘thing’ that will work in shaping the character of our children. Something that will be the key to all of the behavior issues ~ a universal truth that we can apply to every single one of our children and have things magically be just right.

Or maybe that’s just me. :)

This quote from Clay Clarkson really struck me:

“Parenting is not only the process of sowing plenty of good seeds in hopes that some will take root. It is also, and perhaps mostly, about preparing the soil. The task is not to plant enough good seeds to crowd out the world's weedy influences; it’s about faithfully preparing the soil of our children’s hearts – making it soft and receptive, cultivating it, enriching it with nutrients, watering it, and weeding it. I can throw a zillion seeds of character into my child’s heart, but unless his or her heart has been prepared, and until it is changed by Christ, those seeds will be wasted. There must be hoeing if the seed is to result in growing.”

~ Heartfelt Discipline, p. 11

Am I preparing the seeds for my children’s hearts or just throwing seeds at random, hoping something will ‘stick’?

 

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