Many years ago I visited a store that featured a display of freshwater planted aquariums, and I immediately became enamored with them. I was entranced by the lushness of the plants that can grow underwater and by the symbiotic relationship of the aquatic flora and fauna. I had to have one. Eventually, I found a good-sized used tank that was reasonably priced. I installed all the hardware, put down the substrate, filled it with properly-treated water, and added the first plants and fish. It took some time, but soon enough the plants began to grow and to spread. In a matter of weeks, the aquarium was nothing short of stunning.

But it didn’t take me long to realize that the same conditions that cause the plants to thrive also cause algae to thrive. The same water temperatures, pH levels, and lights that cause the plants to grow also cause algae and other unwanted organisms to grow. And from that moment forward, I was engaged in a never-ending battle to foster the former and eradicate the latter. It was a battle I eventually became weary of fighting and after a couple of years I emptied the aquarium, sold it off, and found a new hobby.
I recently found myself pondering that aquarium and the battle between good growth and bad growth. I was considering the local church as the place where Christians are meant to grow. The church is the “aquarium” in which every good Christian quality can grow and thrive. It is in the church that we learn to embrace and display the heavenly virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is in the local church that we experience the kind of contagious zeal that causes us to imitate the best qualities we see in others (and that causes others to imitate the best qualities they see in us). All of this and so much more develops and increases in God’s church.
All of this develops and increases in God’s church because of the church’s relational and communal nature. We live life together, we bare our hearts, souls, and lives, we see one another at our best and worst, and in so many ways become like one another. That’s just how God intends it.
And yet the same context that can promote such wonderful virtues can also foster such terrible vices. Because we live out our Christian faith in such proximity to one another and because we are natural imitators, we are likely to imitate poor qualities as well as good ones. So if love can spread in the local church, so can suspicion. If faithfulness can spread in the local church, so can distrust. If zeal, then also apathy, if submission then also rebellion.
What grows in an aquarium? Plants and weeds, because the conditions that foster one fosters the other. What grows in the local church? Virtues and vices, because much of the context that fosters one can as easily foster the opposite. The challenge, then, is clear, and it is a challenge that goes to each one of us: To bless the church by putting on all those precious Christian graces and to bless the church by putting off all those unChristian vices. It’s in this way that we will serve the church, guard the church, and keep it pure.

Today’s post is written by Christina Fox and sponsored by Christian Focus. Christina’s new book, God Hears Your Heart follows on from Tell God How You Feel (2021) and encourages children to bring all their feelings to God. Learn more and get both books here.

“Mommy, I’m scared!”
When he was young, my son would seek me out during every thunderstorm. He’d arrive at my side, a favorite blanket wrapped around his head, his body trembling in fear. It didn’t help that we lived in Florida where every summer afternoon the sky lit up and the windows shook so hard, you’d think they would break.
I prayed with him and taught him how the psalmist responded to his own fears by telling God how he felt, asking God to help him, and trusting in the character of God. In doing so, I began to teach him how to lament.
“In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me” (Psalm 86:7).
We were created as emotional beings; we all have feelings—our children included. While we rightly spend time teaching our children the truths of who God is and what he has done, we don’t often teach our children how to navigate their emotions. We might instruct them not to sin in their emotional responses but are less likely to help them learn what to do when they feel big things.
My children’s book series, Tell God How You Feel and God Hears Your Heart are discipleship tools for parents to use to help guide their children in learning what to do with the hard emotions of life. In these stories, brother and sister Josh and Mia face difficult emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, and failure, and learn to bring their emotions to God in prayer. They learn the art of lament.
In reading these stories to their children, parents are encouraged to have conversations with their children about their feelings and teach them the habit of crying out to God in prayer. Each story in the books covers a particular emotion and the end of each story includes questions for parents to discuss with their children.
Children learn at an early age how to respond to the hard emotions of life. For some, they might learn to distract themselves from those emotions. Others might develop habits of comforting themselves with a temporary pleasure. Still others might push those emotions down, only to have them erupt later. By teaching our children the way of lament—of bringing emotions to the Lord in prayer and seeking his help—our children are equipped to respond to their big feelings in a God honoring way. They learn to see God as their rock, their refuge, and their deliverer in all their troubles. They learn that God is a Father who hears their cries, collect their tears in a bottle, and is their only source of help and salvation.
“In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears” (Psalm 18:6).
Do you have children with big feelings? Consider reading the stories of Josh and Mia with them today.

Blessings to you today.

(Yesterday on the blog: Much Will Be Required)
‘Tis the Season for Topigetical Sermons
“This season brings with it discussions and debates among Reformed believers genuinely concerned about how best to honor the Lord in the midst of what can feel like sensationalistic, materialistic mayhem rooted more deeply in paganism than sentimentality-sated Christians care to acknowledge.”
Reform Your Faith, Don’t Deconstruct It
“I’ve had doubts about my faith. I’m guessing you’ve had them as well. No one is immune to wondering whether their convictions about Christianity are true. It’s a common human experience that is acknowledged in Scripture.” But as Alan Shlemon argues here, that doesn’t mean you should deconstruct your faith.
Does the Holy Spirit tell people things in their thoughts? (Video)
I found it strangely affirming that these three theologians struggle to answer the question and that the even disagree a bit among themselves. It shows that it’s a very complicated question.
Honoring Dishonorable Parents
“The holiday season is one in which happy families get together to eat lovely meals and have laughter-filled conversations followed by games of charades or meaningful talks around a fireplace – or at least that’s how Hallmark portrays the holidays. For many of us, however, the holiday season is one in which we face a very difficult problem.” That makes this the time of year when many people will struggle to be with and honor their parents.
Is It True That “All Is Vanity”? (Ecclesiastes 1)
This article deals with those key words from Ecclesiastes: all is vanity.
When Goodness Doesn’t Make Sense
“If you live long enough, you will suffer. If you counsel long enough, you will hear some stories of unimaginable suffering. Our awareness of the fallenness of the order in which we live should, in theory, prevent our shock when listening to our counselee’s pains. Often, that is not the case. Some stories are just jaw-dropping.”
Flashback: What Matters Is Not the Size of Your Faith
The smallest bit of faith in God is worth infinitely more than the greatest bit of faith in ourselves, or the strongest measure of faith in faith itself. Faith counts for nothing unless its object is Jesus Christ.

The gospel is about being close to God. To do that, Jesus identified with you even to the point of entering into your afflictions. —Ed Welch