School Year Prayers from a Mama’s Heart – February
Love is difficult to define to a child or anyone really. While the world sells love in red lipstick, smooth skin, an hour-glass figure, and luscious eye lashes, we know real love has nothing to do with appearance or performance. Although we know this in our minds, sometimes our actions speak otherwise. We praise our children for great performances. We post the highlights of their accomplishments and we rally behind them as they do well in school, sports, and other activities. There is nothing wrong with cheering on our kids. I think it’s necessary and even appropriate. But if we only cheer for the things they do and not the way they love, we are missing a huge part of helping them learn about true love. Children and adults alike face a difficult battle when it comes to true love. When there is a lack of love in a person’s life no matter what the age, there will be a deep yearning desire to fill the void inside. It’s only natural. When relationships crumble after many years, love becomes complicated and confusing. What is true love? Do we even know how to practice it?
How do we teach our children about “true” love? How do we impart God’s definition of love to them? When the Bible speaks of love, it says that God Himself is love and that without Him all other love is vain. As we pray for our children this month, and as we celebrate the day of love, let’s remember how the Bible defines love.
God is love. I John 4:8b
Love is not a feeling that prances around in cherry red lip gloss, high heels, and a little black dress. Love is not roses and chocolate. Love is not big muscles, a fancy car, or lots of money. God is love. If we ignore the person of God as we try to love each other in this broken world, we will always come up short, unsatisfied, and searching for more.
I want my children to know that love is not a feeling, but rather a fruit of God’s mercy. This issue of love is an ongoing learning lesson. It’s not something we will ever arrive at completely until we are complete in Christ in His eternal kingdom in heaven. As we enter the month of February and lean into the love of Christ, let’s beg God for our children to learn the reality of true love, God’s love. Let’s ask God to impart in our own hearts the reality of His unconditional love.
We love Him, because He first loved us. I John 4:19
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In case you missed the other posts in this series you can find them here:
August
September
October
November
December
January
Love & Blessings,
Micah
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Hi, your post really touched me today. I know God is love. I am praying for my daughter too that she discovers the realness and beauty of God’s love. I also am praying that she learns to love Him with all her heart. Thanks so much for writing this post. I hope you will consider sharing it with us at Literacy Musing Mondays this week: http://maryanderingcreatively.com/2016-goals-for-lmmlinkup/
Thanks so much! And I appreciate the invite! Just added my link!
Great post! God’s love is so all emcompassing. I’m so thankful that His love found me, and I pray that my kids will be overtaken by it, too! Blessings! :) – Tasha
Amen, Tasha! Thanks for dropping by!
This is so nice!!! Loved this post. I will be sharing this for all the mom’s in my social media! Blessings
Thank you, Tayrina! I hope you have a blessed week!
I really need to pray more for our school year and for my kiddos! Never feel like I pray enough. I enjoyed reading your post. #Titus2Tuesday
Me too, Renee! It’s an area I need to constantly work on!
Beautiful! It is so important to be mindful of the words we use with our children to express and describe love and to model God’s love to them. I grew up with a warped sense of God’s love for me and I want my children to have a much better understanding that I do! Happy to be your neighbor over on Women with Intention Wednesday!
Liz, I love your determination to be the right kind of example to your children!
“If we ignore the person of God as we try to love each other in this broken world, we will always come up short, unsatisfied, and searching for more. ” – I especially loved this. No human can love so perfectly as God, and I am so thankful for His mercy. Thinking about love biblically really brings new meaning to the saying “growing in love.”
Yes! Aren’t we all constantly learning and growing…it’s a never ending challenge.
Micah, thanks for bringing that amorphous word into our real, every day life. With so much inaccurate information swirling around our children about what love means, we need to go back to the Source, which you have done so beautifully!
Thanks, Michele! It’s sad how much we are bombarded by deceitful facades of love. God’s Word always brings to the place and principles we need.
Micah, visiting from Messy Marriage today (#26)…curious, do you homeschool?
Yes :)
Beautiful post! Reminded me of praying in the car with my son on the way to school. Even now when he is grown and lives about 5 hours away, when we talk on the phone, we always close our conversations with…’anything special we can pray about?” …it’s all about the love God pours into us through His Holy Spirit…many blessings to you!
I love to hear this! So beautiful!
As parents, I think we all get the importance of teaching right from wrong, and especially in today’s culture we really stress “do your best.” But my favorite line from your post is this: “But if we only cheer for the things they do and not the way they love, we are missing a huge part of helping them learn about true love.” It is so hard to teach children how to love for many reasons, one of the biggest being that love requires putting someone else ahead of ourselves, and let’s face it, that is HARD. We should probably be more intentional about teaching them how to truly love than to truly perform well, though many of us (me!) often don’t even think of that. In retrospect, I was much better about planning the academic and social lessons than the “love” lessons. They learn so much by our examples, but even more when we are intentional about the instruction. Great post and great reminder!
I love how you put it – “We should be more intentional.” Yes! I need that reminder every day!
Excellent post! Shared on Twitter & FB. Thanks. :)
Thank you, Bette! So happy to connect with you!
I love how you put it. “Love is not a feeling but a fruit of God’s mercy.” It’s also a fruit of the Spirit God can produce in us. Thanks for sharing at the #LMMLinkup.
Yes! I love it when the fruit in our lives and others bears witness of the Spirit! How beautiful!
I love your encouraging prayers. Momhood can be quite tough and exhausting but with the strength of the Holy Spirit that lives in us all things are possible. Especially when we are willing to submit our children in prayer. I am so glad you visit with us weekly at Sitting Among Friends. Such encouragement you are. Have a great week.
Thank you so much! Yes, the Holy Spirit’s power is so key. Thanks for providing a great place to link up!