The start of a new school year begins with lots of excitement, new clothes, a real schedule...and if you are a mom like me - FEAR that your little handful of love will be exposed to things that, quite frankly, you don't want him to know or see until he is 37 years old!
This has been very hard to swallow this year. Kindergarten just seems SO old and Andrew loves life so much and especially loves to be the center of attention. (ahem, I have NO idea who he gets this wonderfully charming characteristic from!) Because of this, he is usually right in the middle of all kinds of activity and is pretty inclusive with anyone who laughs at him and his jokes.
I opened up some conversation between me and my husband a couple of weeks ago about guarding our loving boy's heart and mind. How do we protect him to the best of our ability? How do we make sure that there are more seeds of truth being planted in his growing heart than seeds of the enemy and his lies? (Luke 8:4-15) What are things that we can do at home to make sure that we build the character traits that will make him the strong, loving man of God that we pray each night over him?
Now, I know some will say, "Melody, come on now girl, you simply can't protect him from all the evil of the world. That we would be silly to expect to and that he needs to learn how to "deal" with and respond to it because it will be all around him his entire life.
But I am convicted that the answer to these statements is "NO!" We can and should shield our children from as much evil and corruptness as we possibly can. Our world and its ways have given us an excuse to say "Oh, well, it is just the way it is...We can't let them be caught in naivety."
I will not let Satan lie to my family in this way. We can and should give our children a solid foundation of truth while shielding them until they have all the tools that God's Word offers to stand on stamped onto their hearts. (Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.)
I won't go into all the things that we began to discuss and pray about, but I wanted to share with you one thing (of many) that we are doing to promote a solid foundation in truth and faith.
On our way to and from school (especially on the way to school) we are memorizing small verses of scripture. It really has been amazing to see the change in Andrew's day when it starts off this way, and to be completely honest the change in my attitude throughout the day. We have also just recently begun to say some of the verses after praying at the dinner table together.
Dr. Gary Smalley wrote a wonderful guide for parents concerning this topic, HERE. It is material that I have studied and taken to heart. Dr. Smalley advocates placing God's Word in your heart and your children's hearts so that you all have the tools in place to react out of love, grace and mercy.
Here are some of the scriptures that we know, and were the first ones we memorized (about 2-3 weeks for each):
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30
Love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:31
For you are great and work wonders. You alone are God. Psalm 86:10
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; I know this full well. Psalm 139:14
Call me a "holy roller" or call me a wise mama, I don't care... but one thing is certain:
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! Joshua 24:16
What are ways that you plant seeds of truth in your child's (children's) heart?
