February 15, 2022

By: Amanda Lay | M2L Children’s Director

Ever heard the saying, “Do as I say and not as I do”? Don’t we wish it were that easy! Don’t we wish as parents we could just speak all of the life lessons we need our kids to learn at once and they would remember and hold on to them just because we spoke them.

Love is constantly presented by this world as a fairytale feeling when those of us in the trenches of life know different. Your children see how you respond when you are overwhelmed. Your children know how you speak when you are frustrated. Your children can tell when you are at odds with your spouse. Getting it right doesn’t mean not letting them see those things or faking perfection. Getting it right means sometimes having to make things right.

Truth is, kids learn most by what we model, what we actually live out in the little mundane moments of everyday life. “Love is patient” when your two year old pees in the car seat for the millionth time and you’ll have to dissect it to wash it!! “Love is kind” when your spouse is grumpy and you choose not to respond the same way. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. Ouch!

The point to this is that we are all learning and growing. If we want our kids to truly know what love is then we have to model it for them in the normal moments when no one else is looking. One of the best ways we can lead as a parent/guardian is by being transparent enough to model our own need for a Savior. Because in the end they are going to remember way more about what we did than what we said.

Proverbs 3:3

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.