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“Love is patient, love is kind…”
1 Corinthians 13:4
While I was pregnant, I had difficulties wearing my sandals. One day, my little son noticed and said, “Mummy, let me help you.” He knelt and gingerly put on my sandals onto my feet. Right there, God showed me the many times I had helped put on my son’s shoes, modelling love to him.
Parenting has taught me unconditional love. From pregnancy, mothers endure incredible bodily and birth pains. After birth, the days and nights of infant care seem endless. Once our babies become toddlers, temper tantrums come to test one’s patience. At times, our children fall ill, and we nurse them back to health. As they grow up, exam stress, teenage hormones, relationship issues, etc. set in. There is no easy love with parenting. The NKJV translation of “makrothumei” is “suffer long” – to persevere, to be patient – that’s often what parenting is.
We love as God first loved us. (1 John 4:19) As a child of God, I have been a recipient of God’s unconditional love and relentless patience, despite my countless moments of rebellion and wrongful ways.
Likewise, our children love as we first love them, unconditionally and patiently. As my son reciprocate his love through this touching gesture, I am freshly encouraged to keep loving my children well, and model God’s love to the world around me. - By WT