31 Virtues for our Kids ~ Love

Love

For the month of January we will be praying for 31 Virtues for our Kids maybe even for ourselves too!

Galatians 5:25 (New International Version)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:2 (New International Version)
and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

"I love you a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck
A hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap
A barrel and a heap and I'm talkin' in my sleep
About you, about you
'Cause I love you a bushel and a peck
You bet your purdy neck I do" ~Frank Loesser



I am sure we all have little songs or sayings we say to our kids. Of course it is easy to love their sweet little faces, their our children.



But we are challenged to pray love into their lives...what does that really mean. I was surprised the man who put this list together chose the Galatians verse to go along with love. I can think of plenty of verses in the bible that would support this idea of love.

As I was thinking and praying about it.... I had (do I dare say it?) an "Ah ha Moment". I began to think about how in Ephesians 5:2 we are to live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. What did that really mean? I know that Christ died for me...but he also died for everyone...the sinner, the good person, the not so good person. He even goes further than that... He died for friends who couldn't even stay awake during a desperate time. He died for a friend who denied Him in His deepest hour of need of a friend. He even died for a friend named Judas who sold Him out for 30 pieces of silver. Bottom line he died for everyone, even those who hurt Him the most. ( to bad Judas couldn't figure that out, maybe his ending would have been very different and he will live an eternity in sorrow over it)

So where can I and my kids get that kind of love? This love only comes from God, the Spirit that dwells in us. In our own selves, try as we might, we can not give that kind of love. God's love is too big, too wide and far too deep and it goes beyond the farthest star.






I also have this little saying I say to my kids often..."I love you to the moon and back". ( I even found it at a store and it now hangs in my boy's room) The tradition usually continues with, "Well I love you to something further like the sun, Pluto, Infinity + 1." With the Spirit we can love with God's love which is even bigger than INFINITY +1.

*"Grant, Lord that my children may learn to live a life of love, through the Spirit who dwells in them."

If we can have that kind of love we would most certainly....




*by Bob Hostetler, it is excerpted from Pray! magazine issue #4, 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Kids