Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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



7 comments:

Melody said...

Thanks for posting this today, Christina. Your gentle reminder is greatly appreciated!

Chelsie said...

Amen! Thanks for sharing.

Kristy... said...

What a great post
thanks for REposting this!

Tobitha said...

Christina, thanks for posting this... I needed this reminder!
God bless you!
Tobitha

The Loveless Family said...

A great reminder for those of us with young children. I'm afraid that I don't always keep these things in mind like I should. Thanks

Rosie said...

Christina, you mentioned a while back a twist in your path...check out my blog to see our new path :) (Nosy me wants to know WHERE your new path takes you...I check your blog every day :) ) Beth

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Awesome post! I so needed to see this today.

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