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The Face of Our Future

Plow, Pluck, Pull, Repeat

by Heidi Bratton in Family on Thursday, June 24, 2010 6:00 AM

Like most school children, I learned to label the parts of a frog and then to dissect one in science class. It was a solid beginning to understanding frogs in particular and anatomy in general, but it was by taking a net and scooping frog, turtles, and anything else that swam from on top of lily pads that I really began to understand the bigger picture of God’s creation and to fall in love with it.

In fact, in many school subjects, field trips were the key to making book learning really come to life for me.

For this reason, I love to read in the Gospels of how Jesus, in the capacity of an extraordinary teacher, took the truths written in the Hebrew Scriptures and brought them to life for his disciples amid the hills, lakes, and cities of ancient Israel. In doing this he made all of life a spiritual field trip, just as Israelite parents were instructed to do in Deuteronomy 6:6-9.

Who wouldn’t remember a lesson about faith learned while cowering in a tippy boat during a furious storm, only to have Jesus calm the fury by the power of his rebuke alone (Matthew 8:23-27)?  Who could forget a lesson about forgiveness learned while pressing around an adulterous woman, stone in hand, only to have Jesus disarm her accusers and save her life (John 7:53-11)?

As parents we can and should do as Jesus did and make family life a grand, spiritual field trip for our own young disciples. We can do this unceremoniously by making godly observations and voicing spiritual connections for our children in the course of everyday life.  We can also do this more concretely by planning spiritual field trips based on Jesus’ parables. A perfect parable with which to begin is the parable of the Four Soils found in Matthew 13:1-23.

Field Trip How To

We begin our field trip preparation by praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, reading the chosen parable from the Bible, reading any Biblical study guides we may also have, and then selecting an appropriate location in which to assemble with the children. For the parable of the Four Soils, a place where one can see each of the four soil types is ideal. This can be as close to home as a dirt walkway, a stone driveway, a patch of overgrown woods, and a grassy lawn.

Once the children are assembled, we, again, pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and then read Matthew 13:1-23 out loud. As we read, we encourage the children to interact with the soils; to look at them, plow them up, pluck the rocks and pull the weeds from them, pour water on them, and so forth.

After reading the parable and playing with the soils we can have a picnic and discuss our experiences. Parents should encourage everyone to share their thoughts and monitor conversation to be sure that siblings get the hang of listening without criticizing.

We should keep our Bibles open, referring back to the parable and Jesus’ stated meaning as we ask the following sorts of questions:

Have you ever gown a plant from a seed? What was the role of the soil in growing fruitful plants? Who is the farmer in the parable? What does the seed represent? Jesus said the soil represented people; what kind of soil do you think you are?  What could you do to improve your soil?  Could you plow a hardened attitude? Pluck out rocks of resistance to understanding God’s Word? Pull up weeds of ungodly behaviors?

A fruitful conversation about peer pressure could develop from the observation that weeds have seeds that spread quickly from one soil type to another.

We can become the best of spiritual teachers for our children by remembering the power of school field trips and by taking Jesus’ cue and making Scriptural truth come alive not just in church, but where ever we go.  By both casually and purposefully making all of life a spiritual field trip we can help our children not only to understand the bigger picture of God’s creation, but also to fall in love with it and with him.

—Heidi Bratton is amazed to have found her niche as a wife and home-schooling mother of six children ranging in age from 2 to 20 years old. She is author of Making Peace with Motherhood … And Creating a Better You and her newest children’s books are the Celebrate series of board books available from Circle Press.  Heidi can be reached at homegrownfaith@gmail.com or her website.

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