74 THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IN A CHILD GROWS
FROM THE SEEDS A PARENT SOWS.

How fruitful are you? Does the Holy Spirit have the freedom in your life to develop fruit? Are you living your life to please God? What seed have you sown in your children’s lives that will grow?

These questions were swirling in my head as I hurried to the airport to catch another plane. I was busy in the ministry, busy in my writing, busy in my relationship-building … I was just plain busy. But was I busy doing the right things?

My youngest son caught me up short by asking why I didn’t love him. I was astonished at the thought. Of course I loved him. The problem was, I didn’t show it in a way that he could relate.

He needed my presence to feel the love I had for him. He couldn’t sense it from me while I was hundreds or even thousands of miles away from him. Nor could he get what he needed from my just telling him. It was presence that he craved.

It’s the same with God. We teach our children about relationships with God in the same way we teach them about relationships with others. God yearns for our presence; mere words don’t cut it.

Do you spend time with God? Do your children know it? Do you teach them what it takes to have a personal relationship with God?

Then Moses said to the Lord, “… Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight …” (Exodus 33:12–13).