Roots

ROOT: THE SOURCE OR ORIGIN OF A THING

Developing the 'source' of who Isaiah and Jeremiah are is a humbling and daunting task, when I think about it. How they will learn to think, what they will choose to think upon, what they will desire to do with their time, who they will speak, where they will go, who they will be around, how they will respond to evil when it comes their way, how they will speak when spoken to -these are all things at the 'root' of who they are. 

What exactly are those parts of who they are that need to be cultivated? I think upon the list of things that the Apostle Paul used when he referred to the Spirit of God: "But the fruit [root] of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering/patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5

How do I go about helping them refine those 'roots'? As simple as it may sound and as easy as it may sound, it happens moment by moment - often in the littlest moment or the passing moments. I find myself using my own refinement as an aid to help me help them. Such as - if I am praying something internally, I now practice doing it out-loud so that they can hear. If I am reading the Bible, I read it in their presence - they have a children's version that we read before their naps and before bedtime. When a time-out is given, we pray through it, asking Jesus for grace to obey. When it is time to worship and praise, all of the instruments come out, the music is turned up, and we all do it together.

Opportunities of instructing and training are constant throughout each day; opportunities to practice loving and being loved are constant throughout each day. Their growth is happening in leaps and bounds - much of it will still take repetition and patience to cultivate, but it will all eventually surface. And by God's grace and mercy, the fruit of the Spirit will rise up in and through them.

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3

"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers." Psalm 1