During a quiet time one morning, my eyes lighted upon one of my little wooden treasure chests, a beautiful carved wooden box from my missionary days in Poland. The Holy Spirit impressed me to look at the hearts of my children as treasure chests.
Filling their hearts with truth, beauty, love, great thoughts, books, ideas, adventures, memories, traditions, wisdom, music, art, lessons, and all the good things I could imagine became a purposeful goal.
I wanted to fill them with such an abundance of relics of eternal value that they would draw beauty, strength, guidance, assurance, courage, and love from those deposits for the rest of their lives. God was clearly calling me to disciple my children.
I realized, though, that I could not give to them what I did not myself possess. If I wanted the souls of my children to be rich, then my soul needed to be rich because it was my soul they would draw from.
And so the idea of intentionality began to engage the imagination of my heart. Whatever I filled my mind with, whatever I learned and embraced, flowed into the well of knowledge and refreshment I would draw from and pass on to them daily as I lived my moments in their presence.
For example, investing time every morning with the Lord was of utmost importance because what I learned in those moments shaped the passion I passed to my family each morning over breakfast.
Today, what is one thing you can do to fill your own soul with truth, beauty, and goodness to be able to pass along to your own family? What kind of treasures do you want to fill your children’s treasure box with?