Knowing their Heavenly Father

When my husband proposed, he did so with a dainty white wedding Bible that had a personal inscription to me:

Though the Lord loves you most,

I'll attempt to be the biggest physical representative of that Love.

What a daunting challenge, to love as God loves; to give, to sacrifice, to provide, to protect. Of course it is not humanly possible to exhibit God’s attributes to the perfection that He does, but the mere attempt is bold. And the interesting thing is that this is what we are all called to do for all people.

Particularly for our children.

You know, as parents we have the power to teach our children the attributes of God, our Heavenly Father, and what a challenge it is to show them the height, the depth, the width, the strength of His love through our example. For instance, my son has been demanding my attention a lot lately. It seems like every 5 minutes he’s calling me, trying to get my attention to show me something he wants or beam over an accomplishment. I do my best to answer every time he calls but as you can imagine this can be tiring and annoying, honestly. But if I am to exemplify how attentive God is to his cries; to his needs and desires, I will take time to answer.

II Samuel 22:7: In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into His ears

Could it be that when I answer him and his cries, he can have assurance that the Lord cares and hears him when he prays? By showing him this attribute of a loving parent, I can teach him these truths about God as he grows.

He will learn that a parent loves unconditionally, that a parent protects, that a parent enjoys giving good gifts to his/her children. And as he grows, I can teach him that even when I fall short the Lord will never fail them.

Psalms 27:10: When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up

Of course, this also goes for discipline, in love.

They would know that our love will go to the limit for them and in so knowing, they will realize that God’s love is limitless.

Let’s take steps to consciously exemplify the attributes of God to our children so that they can truly understand His love and will be receptive of Him as adults. In so doing, you are preparing them for an eternity in His love and His divine presence.

Lyrics by tia 2012


Image courtesy of www.DrAjao.com