I’m speaking these words just days after our community faced the unthinkable. A shooting at one of our Private Christian schools… An elementary school. Just babies. I spent the day weeping with a broken heart. Broken for the families who lost their children and loved ones. Broken for the world we live in.. And broken because we must somehow find the courage to raise our own little ones with the threat of darkness all around.

The school was just a couple of miles from our home. We have friends whose children attend. The weight of it is staggering.

We just so happened to have a parent teacher meeting the following morning for Asher. And as we sat, with teary eyes and a solemn undercurrent of tragedy, we spoke of the little boy God made Asher to be.

We reviewed his academics and all of his charts. We saw where he excelled and discussed areas of improvement… But at the end, his teachers looked at us and just said something that spoke to the heart of any parent. They told us what a joy… a delight, and a light our little boy was. They told us just how they have seen him look at people and really see them and know them. How everywhere he goes, people know him and love him. And finally, they left us with the encouragement that our little boy was a testament to who we were as his parents.

I don’t say any of this as if to say we do it better than anyone else. No, indeed. We are just as flawed as any others. But I will say… It was a rare moment of the outside world looking at our child… our precious fruit… and saying, “you’re doing a good job”.

As I prepared for this series, I knew I wanted to speak to the seeds we plant as parents. So this meeting seemed to have been a timely reminder. When you plant seeds in the hearts of your children…they will take root. When you speak life over them, when you remind them of whose they are… and when you remind them of what God says is true over what the world says. Those are things that take root. Not to say it was all done perfectly. And not to say we did or will ever do all of the right things for our kids. But. What I do know is that we have asked God to lead us in our parenting. I know God gave us these babies to steward over. To pour into and love on. To guide and to remind. But mostly… God gave us these babies with the responsibility of setting an example. May we show them every day how to look to God first and always.

Over the last few years, God has challenged Shay and I to work on our own selves. He has asked to step into places that need His healing. He has asked us to be vulnerable. And He has asked us to be obedient…no matter the price. The fact of the matter is.. Our children will never be healthy and whole unless we, ourselves, show them where to find their healing and wholeness. As someone once said, “You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are.” And I’ll spend my entire life committed to that. To reproducing in our children what God has reproduced in us.

So today, my prayer is that you’ll plant seeds of faith in your own children or the lives of children you impact. I pray you’ll do the work. The fruit will often look like little ones who bring joy to dark places. Thank you, Jesus for the chance we have to multiply Your goodness. Thank you, God that we get to hold them and love them and continue sowing.