I tell my teens that I love them every day, and I mean it with all my heart. But I know the way I love my kids doesn’t always align with God’s love for them, and I wanted to take some time to realign my heart with His. So I opened up my Bible to the all-too-familiar passage about love in 1 Corinthians 13 with the intent of meditating on what God says about love.
I had every intention of reading the full passage, but the first three words stopped me on my tracks, and I couldn’t get passed them: Love is patient. I didn’t need to open my Bible to read that, I knew the passage begins with “love is patient”, but somehow having the words in front of me made them jump out of the page and into my heart.
Anytime a scripture jumps at me like that, I love to go deeper by looking up different definitions for whatever word(s) stood out.
Here are some definitions of the word patient from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:
- Having the quality of enduring evils without murmuring or fretfulness; sustaining afflictions of body or mind with fortitude, calmness or christian submission to the divine will.
- Not easily provoked; calm under the sufferance of injuries or offenses; not revengeful.
- Persevering; calmly diligent.
- Not hasty; waiting or expecting with calmness or without discontent.
As I was reading, the Lord began to convict my heart as only He can. Although I have had my fair share of falling short on all four definitions, the one that really spoke to me this time was the last one, “Not hasty; waiting or expecting with calmness or without discontent.” Hmm… I don’t think I could say that’s an accurate description of how I love my kids some days.
The Lord reminded me that parenting is a journey, not a destination. We’re never, ever “done” being parents we just enter different seasons, and our roles in each season change. What remains the same though, is that every season comes accompanied by some kind of waiting. Whether it is waiting for kids to hit the next milestone, or waiting for a painful situation in their lives to change, if we truly want to show our kids the love of Christ, we must learn to wait well.
When I look back on my own journey, I see how patient God has been with me. There have been lessons that have taken me years to learn, some that I am still in the process of learning, and others that are not even on my radar yet. However, I can confidently say that God has been patient with me and has “waited with calmness and without discontent”, because He simply loves me for who I am. His love for me is not based on my performance, or skills. He’s not measuring me up against anyone else, and becoming discontented because I’m not where other people are at my age – thank God for that! He simply gives me the space to learn at my own pace, encourages me every step of the way, guides me every time I seek Him, and lovingly embraces me when I fail.
Your turn!
- 1 John 4:19 says that “we love because He first loved us.” Ask God to help you become more aware of His love for you every day, so that you can extend the same kind of love to your children.
- What is one thing you are waiting on God concerning your children?
- How can you show patience as you wait for His answer?
Photo Credit: Jordan Benton
