Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Manly Training Ministries

Home
Family, Parenting and Religion
Learn to Love Your Children Like Jesus

Learn to Love Your Children Like Jesus

Last updated on: February 12, 2019 at 9:51 am by Eduardo Quintana

Learn to Love Your Children Like Jesus 2019-02-12T09:51:53-05:00 Eduardo Quintana

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As humans, our emotions can vary widely throughout a whole range of subjects. Valentine’s day is this coming Thursday, so today I want to focus in on love. We are capable of feelings several types of love, and each type has its own focus and intensity.

There is an old saying concerning love. “If you love, let it go. If it never returns, it was never yours anyway. If it does return, it will be yours forever. If it returns and eats everything in sight and leaves a mess, you are either married or are a parent.”

For the next two days we will take a look at different types of love from both a worldly and Godly perspective.

The first type of love we will look at is the love between a parent and a child.

THE LOVE BETWEEN A PARENT AND CHILD

There is the love between a parent and a child. One young boy said love was when his daddy read him a bedtime story. He went on to say that true love was when his daddy didn’t skip any pages.

I remember when my 7 year old son and I had a difference of opinion about his bike. Several times he would leave his bike in the middle of the driveway. That got me mad because when I came home from work, I could not park my Jeep on the driveway or inside the garage unless I got out and moved his bike out of the way.

One time I happened to come home just as he had left his bike there and was running inside the house. I waited a couple of minutes to see if came back out and moved his bike, but he didn’t. So I got out of my Jeep and went inside the house. Then I ordered him to move his bike out of the way so I could park.

I was fuming, and as I turned to walk back outside to my Jeep, he followed me but instead of moving his bike, he stood there looking at me. I was about to continue my tirade, but he quickly asked me where the end of the lecture went.

I asked him what he was talking about, and he reminded me that the end of the lecture was when I said, “I love you, Son, so let’s try to correct this, okay?”

That was the end of my anger, and the end of his blocking the driveway. This was also a sign of the love shared between a father and a son.

It’s Harder Than you Know

In the world, a parent loves their children and a child loves his or her parents. But, as those of you who have raised children probably already know, there are times when being a parent is very sweet, and then there are times that are very difficult.

As parents, we strive to take care of our children and give them everything they need, don’t we? And as children, since we aren’t mature enough to always know what we need, we depend fully on our parents to give us what we want.

If we are to model our lives after Jesus, should we not also model our relationship with our children after His relationships with children?

There is a Bible passage that begins with Jesus talking to His disciples. They had come to Him and asked who the greatest was in the kingdom of Heaven. Here is what Jesus told them in …

MATTHEW 18:2

‘He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child I the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.’

Jesus was saying that a child’s heart is absolutely pure. It has no unloving feelings towards anyone and has no ungodly characteristics. It is the essence of God to put it mildly.

And notice that Jesus didn’t say we needed to be like them. He said we needed to change to be like them. That denotes the purity of a child, and the sinfulness of an adult.

There is another passage that talks about how Jesus dealt with children.

MATTHEW 19:13-15

‘The little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”

I am sure the disciples had Jesus’ best interest at heart. I believe they were trying to protect Him from the public, much like we see the Secret Service doing for the president today.

But Jesus gave them a rebuke. And in so doing, He again elevated the purity of children to a Heavenly level.

Now, if Jesus placed so much love on children, should we not do the same? Jesus handled children with love, not harshness. But how many times have we treated our children like I treated my son the day he blocked the driveway?

The Challenge

Have you ever been harsh with your children? I have. More times than I care to remember! If you have, I challenge you to love your children like Jesus and to give that up to the Lord. Then ask Him to help you treat your children the way Jesus treated children around him. Then, go tell your children that you are sorry for the harshness you have treated them with and pray for them. In doing so, you will be modeling humility and showing them that it’s OK to ask for forgiveness.

Now go…. and show yourself a man!

Find Out More About Manly Training Ministries

You don’t need a Bribe to Join my Tribe… Go ahead, make it official!

Eduardo Quintana is also featured as an author on Lightworkers Media

Click HERE to visit his author page.

Stay Connected by Email. Click HERE

I would be very grateful if you shared this article and website on your Twitter, Facebook, or other social media. You can also follow MANLY TRAINING on:

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

Click HERE to Check out our Patreon Page

Shop at theManly Training AMAZON Store. Click HERE

Men of Velvet

FATHERESS

A Hard Lesson For Dad!

Previous Post

February 11, 2019

What Should I Do When Life Takes A Turn For The Worse?

Next Post

February 13, 2019 Do We really Need to Learn to Love Ourselves?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category BE A MAN ENTERTAINMENT FAMILY FAMILY AND RELATIONSHIPS HOLIDAYS LIFE LIFE EVENTS NEWS PODCAST POLITICS BLUE POLITICS RED PUBLIC SQUARE SERIES SEX THE SPIRITUALITY OF CHILDREN Uncategorized VIDEO

Select a Month October 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz