Planted

by Cathy Madavan

Read

Psalm 1

Blessed is the one … 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 (vs1-3).

Reflect

I love being  a mum and the joy it is to love my children. But sometimes I feel like I am pulled in so many directions. One minute I am attending a school concert, the next I am bashing the computer to make a work deadline and a moment later I am zooming around the supermarket like Lewis Hamilton with a trolley (beware anyone who comes between me and the tins of Peppa-Pig-shaped spaghetti).

But wherever I am physically, Psalm 1 reassures me that I can still be planted and rooted in God’s truth continually and nourished by his presence. What a wonderful promise that is.

Deep roots

Of course, it is impossible to read the Bible around the clock, but we can deliberately get to know the word of God, savour it, meditate upon it and apply it in such a way that its truth becomes integrated into our life – and into the lives of our children.

When my girls were small, they loved sharing Bible stories at bedtime and listened to some wonderful audio Bible books as they went to sleep. But as our children grow older, we will want to encourage them to read and pray for themselves, to drive them to camps and youth groups and to deliberately ask more about what they have been discovering. We might not have all the answers to their questions, but we can always explore faith and the Bible together in an atmosphere of love.

Fruitful lives

Like us, our children are blessed when they know that God is with them everywhere. As they are planted continually into the streams of God’s love and truth, they can draw upon his presence in the playground or in an exam as well as on a Sunday morning.

As parents we can grow in our own desire for God’s word and prayer, which will impact our families significantly. Our homes and churches are places where we put down those deep roots together so that we can all flourish and be fruitful wherever we find ourselves each day.

Respond

How can we remind each other to draw on the streams of God’s presence? Are there creative visual, written or digital prompts that we could use to “meditate” on God’s truths throughout the day?