Am I Nurturing the Soil of My Sons' Souls?

I recently read the article "Nurturing a Child's Soul" from The Better Mom which talks about how instead of worrying about the seed we are sowing, we should be making sure the soil of our children's souls is ready to receive the seed.  The seed of the gospel is perfect already, and God will not let His Word return to Him void, so we don't need to worry about the packaging the Message comes in.  Our children will receive it if the soil of their hearts is prepared.

To quote the author of the article, "Will our child’s soul be cultivated like the good soil where the seed falls and grows and produces a bumper crop of God’s love, grace, power and purpose? Or will our child’s soul be like the rocky place or the shallow soil where the gospel either cannot be rooted or is rooted only inches deep? Will the enemy come and snatch the truth from our children because their hearts are not prepared to really embrace what God has for them? As parents, it is our responsibility and our calling to cultivate the soil of our child’s heart. To breathe life and unconditional love and understanding into them. To show them the true nature of Christ by actually living it out every day.  We are called to humbly live an authentic life devoted to the call of being a real disciple of Jesus."

This is a huge challenge for me.  Am I living every day in an authentic, godly, gracious, loving way that will attract my sons to the gospel?  Do they see Christ in me?  Are my words and actions in line with Scripture?  What a huge responsibility.  Praise God for His grace to cover over my sins and for His strength to take on the responsibility of being a godly mother.  Thank God for His Holy Spirit who dwells in me to lead and guide me.

My prayer for my sons is that their hearts would be fertile soil to receive the seed of God's Word, that the seed would take root in their hearts and produce a crop of righteousness.  I pray that they would seek and follow Jesus all their lives, that they will grow up to be strong Christian men who are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ and who boldly lead others in the way of salvation.  This starts with me and my husband cultivating the soil of their hearts through our own walks with the Lord.  God help me!