Dave was a wise man. He loved the Lord Jesus and asked Him for help and guidance each day. He was a hard-working black man with a large family. Besides being a gospel preacher, Dave had to do a little farming to make ends meet, and his wife preserved much of the food for their family’s needs.
One day when I visited Dave, he took me out to show me his garden, which he enjoyed and cared for. The rows were neat and orderly, the weeds were pulled, and the vegetables were large and healthy. But right in the middle of the garden was a patch that had been planted in a hodgepodge manner. The weeds were bigger and more abundant than the vegetable plants, and the fruit was stunted.
I asked Dave about this patch of weedy garden. He told me that he planted this patch to remind himself how not to raise his children. He said, “Some folks tell me, ‘Just let the children be; don’t be too concerned; everything will be all right.” Dave explained that raising children, or doing anything right in life, requires proper care and attention. “First,” he said, “you must know the Lord Jesus yourself. You must accept Him as Lord and Master of your life. But you know,” he continued, “we have something far more valuable than a garden when we have a family and children. How important it is to read the Word of God and pray with them; how important it is to correct them with love and wisdom from the Bible. That’s like planting well and pulling the weeds.”
Fathers and mothers, do you have your life in order? Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? Your children are like a garden. Are you reading God’s Word, the Bible, to them and praying with them every day? Are you bringing them up the way Ephesians 6:44And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4) instructs? “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)).
Boys and girls, do you know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour? “He that abideth in Me, and I in him ... bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:55I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5)).
Let us use much care and wisdom, that our lives and the lives of our families may never become a garden of weeds!
ML-10/19/2014