If I were to write down a list of the top traits that I want my children to exhibit in life, I'd probably list: kindness, goodness, patience, compassion, mercy, humility, gentleness, and hope.
Essentially, those qualities all describe LOVE.
More than anything, I want my kids to love God and love people genuinely, from the heart.
I want them to have the kind of love that fills them up from the inside and spills out, painting the world with brilliant shades of peace and joy.
Sheldon Vanauken, author of A Severe Mercy (one of my favorite books!), wrote, "But love is the final reality; and anyone who does not understand this, be he a writer or sage, is a man flawed in wisdom.”
His words ring true to me.
Before I want my kids to be entrepreneurs or to eat right and exercise or to travel far and wide, I want them to love.
* Photos taken in August 2009.
Love is such a hard thing to "teach" your children but probably the most valuable lesson they will earn. We always struggle with how easy it is to say "I love you" but forget to show how much we really do by our actions and our words. Our oldest forgets to think before she speaks and it can really hurt someone's feelings. She's not saying it to be mean, but doesn't realize how it comes across. We end up asking her how she'd feel is they said it to her- then have her figure out how to correct it.
Absolutely loved this theme for the weekend.
"and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is love"
Such a great post Stephanie! I am with you. I want my kids to know and love God and to love people well. When I found out my first was a girl, the very first thing I prayed was that she would love God...at a young age, not only that she would grow to be a Godly woman, but that she would be a Godly little kid...loving God and in turn loving others. I prayed she would be loving, kind, caring, and a good friend. The same prayers for my second born. By loving God and loving others, they can change the world.
Blessed too the words right out of my mouth!
This brought tears to my eyes...thank you! It's amazing how much we are loved by our heavenly father unconditionally. Gifts of the spirit...what an amazing place this world would be if we could all love like this. I am going through a really difficult time in life. I unknowingly was involved with a married man, a former police office no less, who has a wife & kids that he is away from during the work week. My hope and prayer after reading this is that my child will understand how much he/she is loved, and will be able to love, above anything else.
If they can love with their whole hearts they are set.
Beautiful post. To go along with your "I want my kids to be..." theme, you should really check out fishfulthinking.com - Pepperidge Farm's positive parenting website (if you haven't already). It's all about inspiring optimism and emotional awareness in our kids, teaching gratitude, setting goals, building self-confidence, and resilience. You would LOVE it!
I often pray that the Lord will turn my child's heart to love him and love his people. This is a good post. And goes quite well with the "well-traveled" post, because there are a lot of people around the world that desperately need that love.
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels... though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith... and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor..." Without love it's nothing, it's all in vain, empty - this passage from 1 Corinthians was the first thing that came to mind as I read your post. More than anything else I too want my kids to love - if they learn to be loving they will find peace, happiness and delight in their everyday life - no matter what their circumstances turn out to be.