Love Dare #2 LOVE IS PATIENT – Father’s do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4) When you truly love someone two keys things shine through on a regular basis: patience and kindness. Many other characteristics of love are based on these two attributes. Patience diffuses something negative and kindness is how we initiate something positive. One takes in a deep breath and the other breathes out life. As you know, raising a child requires an unlimited supply of both patience and kindness. This dare will focus on patience. Patience is when out of love we choose to “suffer long” for the greater good of another person. It is similar to a farmer who knows that fruitful farming only comes if he willing to endure the sun. We persist when we want to resist out of love for the individual we care for. We must daily invest time, energy and effort until we can celebrate the harvest of our children. A loving parent requires a long supply of patience as you are building and cultivating your children. All your work and sacrifice will pay off; however today requires enduring patience which we all need but rarely delight in demonstrating. Yet – love invites us to exercise patience frequently as parents, and when we do it brings maturity to both the parents and children as well as needed grace and peace in the midst of our problems. Children have an amazing ability to test the level of our patience by their tone, disobedience, irresponsibility, and lack of respect. That is why God’s love is so exemplary to all of us as we try to mirror his patience with our own children. We need to remember his enduring love for us and let his example of love flow through us to our children. What we do every day with, in front of and by our children is a walking example every day. Love chooses restraint and controls our emotions rather than our emotions controlling you. It reminds us to humble ourselves and apologize where necessary know how much is at stake. Anger divides and isolates and weakens us and wounds others. Patience is always welcome and gives people more time to work through issues and diffuses conflict. Let love calm you and then build your children up. Parenting does call for discipline against carelessness and defiance, but we must differentiate between rebellion and childish ignorance. Always factor the age, circumstances and level of maturity. LOVE DARE #2 Write the word “LOVE IS PATIENT” on a piece of paper and temporarily tape it to your mirror of refrigerator. When you see the words “Love is Patient” over and over the next few week, practice to display patience throughout the day as a further demonstration of your love to your children. Did any past instances come to mind when you could have demonstrated more patience? What happened in the next few days that gave you an opportunity to show patience?
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 22:48:51 +0000
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