“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
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.13.4-7.NLT

Parents, love your children.

All those verses in proverbs about “the rod”? They are meaningless apart from this foundation of biblical love.

Parents, love your children. There is no balancing love and discipline. You cannot love your children too much. To love others (using a biblical definition of love) is to love God. Love your children enough to teach them. Love them enough to correct them.

There are real issues we face as parents that are not solved with a blanket “love them”. I understand this. But I also know that without love, we’re clanging cymbals. We can talk about Jesus all day long with our kids, and if they see us parents as irritable, demanding, or winking at sin we are at best wasting our breath and worse, alienating our children from God.

So that’s my parenting advice today… however simple it may seem: love your kids.