(Mark 4:1-9 ESV)
They help you put things into your mind to help them make sense.
Jesus knew this, so he used stories to help convey biblical truth.
In this instance he used a picture people of the day would be quite familiar with. The act of planting seed and waiting for the harvest.
Depending on where the seed landed, would make a difference in the outcome.
1. Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
2. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
3. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
4. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
He didn't explain it, he merely said “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And other seed fell along the sides of our prepared area and they just aren't coming along, the seed in the prepared area is doing better, though as of yet we can scarcely see it.
It takes time.
Not all who heard this parable that Jesus told understood it. They would be unable to see the spiritual connection of how some folk hear the word and it takes strong root in their lives and they flourish, and others hear it, want it but it doesn't seem to settle into them, and others get choked out by the wiles of the world, and others just don't get it at all. That's the way it is in nature, and that's the way it is with spiritual things. It's a hard truth, but it shows how with good cultivation people can flourish if they learn the truth of who God is.
That's why we need to work at preparing our children's hearts, helping to keep them receptive to who God is.
Prepare it, teach it, pray over it...fertile ground for fertile hearts.