Love is...

For the past few weeks we've been doing something a little different during our family devotion time. I can't always find what I want when searching for materials to use with family devotions so, sometimes I make it up! Ha! This is one of those times. I wanted to truly teach my children what LOVE is. I mean, we definitely love each other in this house, but we don't always act like it. I wanted to them to have a picture of what love really looks, acts, and sounds like. So, naturally I went straight to 1 Corinithians 13: 4-7.We use the NIRV because it's the "readers version" which helps young readers feel confident reading God's Word.

As a family, we have read and reread this verse. We have analyzed it and defined it so that we all really understand it. We've talked about specific examples and even watched a few videos to helps visualize what love is. And my favorite part, we applied it ourselves....

It means a lot more when you say, "Tori is kind. Tori is patient." and so on.... It definitely made me quietly question how well I show love in and out of every day! I think it helped my boys to understand that love isn't just an abstract idea, its something we DO. We also made a chart to help us clearly see what love IS and what IS NOT. 

We also took the verse apart and discussed a different aspect of love each night. One of the boys got to color the flower as we discussed what that specific characteristic of love meant. Then we placed the flower in a vase on our dining room table to help us remember what love is throughout the week.

The boys really enjoyed this and I believe they have a much clearer definition of love now!

My little love bugs! (Tyson just played with the flowers while the big boys colored!)

Our "Love Vase"

Today I am thankful for family devotions. I never even knew what family devotions were until we had a child and desired whole-heartedly to raise him to be a Godly man. We started talking to Godly parents and asking pastors and reading Christian parenting books so that we could figure out what we needed to do. It quickly became clear that we needed to be learning about God together, as a family. We need to be praying together, worshiping together, and devoting time to our Savior..together! So, we started as soon as Dylan could sit still for a few minutes at a time and we've been doing family devotions ever since. We aren't perfect at it and we have altered and revised our devotion time over and over again but, I have to say, it is a very special time for our family, I pray that it will help to impact our children for the glory of God! I am also grateful for 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Love is so clearly defined in this passage. If we aren't sure what love looks like...just look in 1 Corinthians! My boys are memorizing this passage and so are Bryan and I. I think it will be good for us to remember, as life goes on, what love truly is according to God (not according to the world!) We also realized  while studying this verse, that the best way to determine if something is loving or not is to ask, "would Jesus act that way?" If Jesus wouldn't boast or brag or keep a record of wrongs or act unkindly, then it isn't loving. And since we love one another in this house, we will try not do those things either. Learning what love really is has been a good lesson for all of us!