I picked up Thomas Watson's "The Godly Man's Picture" off my shelf today and began reading the section, "the godly man strives to be an instrument for making others godly."

Watson writes, "The godly man is not content to go to heaven alone but wants to take others there. Spiders work only for themselves, but bees work for others."

He then applies it to how we might encourage our children;

"If it is a sign of a godly man (or woman!) to promote grace in others, then how much more ought he promote it in his near relations:

It is pleasing to God that our children should know him early in life. When you come into a garden, you love to pluck the young bud and smell it. God loves a saint in the bud. Of all the trees which the Lord could have chosen in a prophetic vision (Jer 1:11) he chose the almond tree, which is one of the first of the trees to blossom. Such an almond tree is an early convert." (p.186)

I pray that this would be true of our children at Hope. That they would blossom and grow for the glory of God from a young age and that we might nurture them in our parenting and in our children's classes and in our example as the body of Christ.