by Shannon Rayford

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: February 20, 2009

"A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold" (Luke 8:4-15).

I use to work in a Children's' Home and we would have devotions after dinner every night. The kids always liked for me to try to use everyday examples when explaining the Bible to them. One of our favorites was the parable of The Seed and the Sower. Many of the children I worked with came from rough backgrounds and used that as an excuse for not succeeding. Rather than just read verses to them, I would discuss how they can apply the verses to their daily lives.

When I first read this parable, many of the kids didn't understand what Jesus meant. I asked them what they thought it meant and, although their answers were wrong, it still provoked some interesting discussions. Then, I explained the meaning. The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard the word of God, but then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with happiness; but these have no root, they believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Those that fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

After thinking about this the kids came up with an example of how this passage relates to them. They explained, in school, those along the path are those who have heard what the teacher says in class, but come from families where they are not encouraged and are made to believe that they will never amount to anything. Those seeds on the rocks are those that listen in class and are determined to have a good school year, but once it gets too hard they give up. Those that fell among the thorns are those that hear the teachers' words in class, but are too worried about dances, and sports. They are not mature.

This small passage showed these kids that there are so many reasons why people fall from God's word, or from any other goal. It taught them that it didn't matter that the seed did not grow because it fell along the path or choked up by thorns. The bottom line is the seed did not grow. So it didn't matter that they came from difficult backgrounds, or if school was too hard, if they didn't work hard they would not grow either.

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