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Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.?But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.?This is real love?not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.?No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.?????????? ??????????? 1 John 4:7-11 (NLT)
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Everyone on the face of the planet would use the word ?love? to define how and why a family functions.
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Ask a young child what family means to them and a typical response would be something along the lines of ?we love each other.? But for the Christian family, love goes a step further. Actually, it is more like a million steps because the love that should be evident in a family where God is present is unconditional love.
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It is a love that no one has to earn and no one can be disqualified from.
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Unconditional love is supernatural. As Jesus told His disciples, anyone can love someone who loves them in return but the love of God extends to those who are completely undeserving. (Matthew 5:43-48)
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Every parent on the planet loves their kids when they are being obedient and good, but parents with the love of God continue to love when it doesn?t make natural sense to.
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Recently, I was talking with a mom whose daughter continually gets into trouble at school. The mom talked a long time about how disappointed her and her husband were in their daughter and how they have told her that the consequences will only increase if she?doesn?t?shape up. When the mom stopped to breathe, I asked, ?Do you think your daughter confidently knows that you and your husband love her regardless of whether she makes good decisions or bad decisions?? The silence on the other end was answer enough.
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Finally the mother spoke again, ?Well, she needs to know there are consequences for her actions!? ?Right,? I agreed, ?But one of the consequences is never that you remove your love from her. She?shouldn?t?have to earn it? therefore, she can?t be disqualified from it.?
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For the next hour we talked about unconditional love and the priority it should have inside of their home. This mom was doing the best she knew how to do. But at the root of her own relationship with God, she felt like she needed to earn His love and that belief spilled out into her parenting.
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Many people have grown up in a home environment where if you were good then you felt loved. And as a result, they have come to equate goodness with receiving love. The same parents who have a hard time expressing unconditional love to their kids are also the ones who have a hard time receiving it from God. They feel good about their relationship with God when they feel good about their own works. And they avoid church and God when they feel ashamed or guilty because their own thoughts make them believe that God loves them less because of their actions.
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But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.? Romans 5:8 (NLT)
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The message of the Gospel is that God loved us in spite of ourselves. And the message you have been appointed to take to the whole world, including your children, is that God loves them unconditionally.
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God knows past, present and future?simultaneously. He has already?foreseen?your kids in the middle of the worst situations that they could get themselves into and has loved them in spite of their sin and rebellion. In fact, He took that sin and carried it to a cross so that it wouldn?t define who they are.
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For the person who has encountered the salvation of Jesus Christ, neither failure nor success has the ability to define who they are.
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As a parent whose life has been swallowed up in Jesus, you are paving the way for your children to receive the revelation that God?s unconditional love for them is the only thing worth finding their identity in.
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When your children experience the love that you show them, do they experience something supernatural inside of it?something Christ like? Something that paints the picture for them of how their Heavenly Father loves them?
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When your kids hear you talk about them, do they hear your disappointment and frustration or do they hear something that sounds like the God who believes there is a treasure worth seeking and saving hidden deep inside of them?
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Do your kids turn to you when they get themselves in trouble because they know that your love for them will prevail over your disappointment in their decision?
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Our kids get a picture of who God is through our parenting. And as parents, our job is to make sure that picture is accurate. I can?t promise that your children won?t make decisions that break your heart and send you reeling. Or that you are going to know how to handle every situation that comes up. But I do know that everything we do as parents must be wrapped in unconditional love so that our children will know beyond a shadow of doubt that we love them?just as God does.
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None of us are perfect parents. Even as I write this, I feel challenged and convicted all at the same time. Choose to let that feeling of being inferior to this divine role that God has placed you in drive you to your knees in prayer. I am convinced that the more that we admit our weakness and rely on God?s strength, the better parents we will be.
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And if you are looking at your own life and realizing that you are that parent who has felt like you had to measure up your whole life in order to receive God?s love, then take some time to open up your heart and embrace His love for you. You can?t give away what you don?t first possess yourself. Know the inexhaustible love of God inside of your own relationship with Him so that you can pour that same love out onto your children.
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Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God?s love and keep you strong.?And may you have the power to understand, as all God?s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.?May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.? Ephesians 3:17-20 (NLT)
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud??or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.?It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.?Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NLT)
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If you are finding this series on Supernatural Parenting helpful and inspiring, consider sending it to a friend or sharing it on Facebook. ?There are a lot of parents who needs a revelation of how to step into a Divine partnership with God inside of their parenting. Help me reach them with the message that God is for them and their family.
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With every lesson that I post in this series, I am praying for every parent who will read these words. I am not an expert parent, but I know the God who is?and I am praying for God encounters with every parent happens upon these posts. ?Please join me by taking a moment to pray for your own parenting and for the parenting of your friends and family members before sending this post on to them.
Related posts:
- Supernatural Parenting Series
- The Heart of the Issue {Supernatural Parenting}
- Fruit of the Spirit {Supernatural Parenting}
- Values that Shape {Supernatural Parenting}
- Supernatural Love
Source: http://www.creatinghomejournal.com/2012/02/12/unconditional-love-supernatural-parenting/
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