Loving Our Children in Action

Showing love is so important
that the first and great commandment is
"...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind."
~ Matthew 22:37

The second is
"...love thy neighbor as thyself." (v.39)

I don't doubt that we all love our children,
but perhaps there are ways that
we can better show them
that we do love them.
We can always do more
than what we are presently doing.
Love requires much effort.


~ Accept them ~

Our children must feel
a genuine acceptance by their parents.
We need to express joy and delight in them.
We need to encourage them
and tell them what we love about them.
God made them unique.
We need to make the extra effort
to really get to know them
and look forward to what God
is doing in their lives.


~ Affectionately love them ~

Hugs and kisses {sugars}
should always be a normal routine.
We need to smile at them and laugh often.
We need to tell them often
how much we love them
and love being near them.
That never grows old to hear.


~ Attentively Listen ~
Listening shows that we love them.
Listening involves looking at them
as they speak and truly hearing
what they have to say.
We shouldn't be listening halfheartedly,
just as we wouldn't want them to do it to us.
Listening takes time and concentration.


~ Accumulate Memories ~
We should want our children
to grow up and be able to look back
and remember that their parents
took time for them, had fun with them,
had family traditions,
read God's Word with them
and made fond memories.
We should also want them to
remember us as parents that
lived by example and drew them to Christ.
Making memories requires time
~ quality time ~
not only time of teaching and training,
but time enjoying them.


~ Always in Prayer for them ~

We pray for those we love.
Our children need our faithful, fervent prayers,
no matter what age they are.
Spending time on our knees,
lifting our children up in prayer,
is crucial and it is love in action.


We love our children dearly,
but may we never assume
that they already know it.
Rather let us do all that we can
and seek to do more,
to purposely show them
how much we truly love them.



"...Let us not love in word,
neither in tongue;
but in deed and in truth."
~ 1 John 3:18


~ Christina K © February 2005
originally written for a homeschool group newsletter