Protect the Seed

Luk 8:12 says

 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

I picture my family being the hearts that are so deprived of the word, belief and salvation.  We know that God, in His perplexing sovereignty, for some reason allows Satan to steal the words from hearts.  I don't know why, and I don't know who...but I want to do all that God has given me the power to do to protect my family from Satan's capacity to do this.

Proverbs 1 illustrates those that will not listen to words of Wisdom.  Eventually, "Wisdom" stops answering them.  Not listening to reproof and counsel are the two things that seem to contribute to the final silencing of the words of Wisdom.  Could this be suggestive of how our parenting should be structured.  We want to be people who listen to reproof and counsel, and we want our families to be able to follow our example, so when the Ultimate Words of Wisdom (the Gospel) are spoken, we will have hearts tuned properly.

Pro 1:20-33  Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:  (21)  She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,  (22)  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  (23)  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.  (24)  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;  (25)  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:  (26)  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;  (27)  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.  (28)  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:  (29)  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:  (30)  They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.  (31)  Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.  (32)  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.  (33)  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

James 1 speaks of those that hear the Word, and don't "do" them.  They are forgetful hearers.  I wonder if that is one way that Satan "steals" the seed...by our own forgetfulness.

Jas 1:22-27  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  (23)  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  (24)  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  (25)  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.  (26)  If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.  (27)  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

We need to cultivate habits in our husbanding and parenting that help to create deep, fertile soil for the Words of the Gospel to take root, and not trampled soil that is on the "wayside" for Satan to steal from.  Any ideas of how to do that practically?  I like your idea of regular "community" gatherings for discussing and cultivating habits of attentiveness to the Word in ourselves and our families.