We’ve talked about making our homes a more loving environment, and showing authentic, genuine love to our spouses, but can we do this with our kids too? How can we parent with the principles of making love a way of life? The most fundamental thing that parents can do for children is to love them and to teach their child to love others. Loving your child with the seven traits of love is the most fundamental parenting skill you will ever learn. Many of you probably know that we have 4 daughters and one son. Shortly after having Carson come live at our house, we became his parents when he was 2, I was asked to teach at a large conference on parenting. Our girls were all older, and my speaking date was 1 month after Carson came to live at our house. My parenting skills were turned upside down very quickly. I went from a confident parent, to a parent who wasn’t sure what to do with this little human who was now living under our roof. We have had him now for almost 10 years, and thankfully, many of the discipline issues are nearly perfected – I say that in faith!!!! – but my confidence as a parent really did get rattled. When I got up to speak about parenting, my first words were, I thought I was a good parent, but after parenting a little boy for just a month now, I think I know nothing! Of course everyone laughed, but they didn’t know how serious I was. Parenting really is about loving authentically. It is thinking not about yourself, but about how can I teach this little human to receive love, and then to give that love to others. Parenting is much about modeling a loving attitude and loving actions. Of all of the attributes of love, while parenting, patience gets to be tested overtime! Will we demonstrate a loving attitude by being patient. Patience is the cardinal virtue of a parent and patience in parenting takes much of our time. We assign responsibility, praise the child’s effort, and teach the child how to move to the next level of maturity. Children learn bit by bit that good behavior brings benefits, and poor behavior makes life difficult. The parent who is patient with this process is expressing authentic love.
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