Here’s my first stab at a series on my blog.  I’ve written before about how I’m trying to bring the fruits of the Spirit into my parenting, and I thought I’d take a stab at writing a post on each one of the fruits.

So the first one is love.  It may seem surprising, but this one can get lost sometimes in parenting.  I get wrapped up in teaching them and setting a good example and coming up with a consequence and finding the right words and…and…and… all of it.  Most of the time they just need me to love them.  They need a hug and some empathy, or some fun, or a “yes” when I really want to say “no”.

The Bible talks a lot about love – how God loves us, that Jesus loved us so much that He laid down his life, that the two greatest commands are to love God and love others.  So it would seem that love is a pretty big deal.

I’ve heard many times, in many sermons, that the way we love our children models the love of God for them.  They have a small understanding of how God loves them based on how we have loved them as parents.  THAT…that is a tall order.  I will never be capable of loving them the way God does.  But I can either teach them unconditional love, or not.  I can teach them unconditional acceptance, or not.  I can teach them that they can trust me no matter what, or not.

There are a lot of issues that have the potential to divide us as parents, when really it all boils down to loving them.

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