Start with Good Soil
If you have ever been around a farmer or serious gardener, you will quickly find that they are obsessed with soil. They will kick it and roll it around with the toe of their boots. They will sift it with their fingers. They will smell it — even taste it!– to try and understand the character and quality of the dirt. They will send off soil samples to break down the makeup of the soil. They want to know everything about the dirt. How acidic is it? How does it hold water? What is its chemical makeup? How much nitrogen is in the soil? How much iron? They’ll drive you nuts talking about their dirt and what it needs or how good it is for certain crops.
Why are they this obsessed with the quality of their soil? Because they will tell you that a successful harvest is determined in large part by the quality of the soil. That’s why these farmers take such care in fertilizing the soil. Healthy soil means a healthy crop.
When it comes to raising our children, we often overlook this fundamental of nature. Crops, no matter how great the seeds are, need good soil to thrive. Likewise, children need good family environments to thrive. All of us want our children to grow up to be healthy, smart, and committed to their faith in Jesus.
If this is what we want to happen, then we need to plant our children in better dirt. That means, like a good farmer, we need to spend a lot of time preparing the soil before we decide to plant a crop. This means (and who tells you this?) that husbands and wives, who will become fathers and mothers, need to do a lot of work before the child is ever born.
Questions about the kind of family you want to be will need to be answered before you become parents. Where will you go to church as a family? Which one of you will occupy which parenting roles? Every family is different and everyone answers these questions in unique and creative ways, but these questions have to be answered.
Are your mom and dad healthy? Do you have any residual issues from your own childhood you need to deal with before you become a parent? What do you have to do as a person to make sure you’re as emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy as you can be before you become a parent? What do you have to do to make sure you’re planting your child is planted in good soil?
Do you want to have better children? Start with better dirt, and that has nothing to do with our children.
It has everything to do with us.
