Love Increasing

May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 1 THESSALONIANS 3:12

Remember the day when you first held your child and thought, There is not enough room in my heart to hold all this love. I may burst with joy! You had no idea then just how that love could find its cozy place in your life and how much it would grow. From the newborn days to the teenage years, you’ve shaken off sleep, stepped out of a warm bath, and dropped everything to make sure your child has what they need. And out of your unconditional, increasing love, you are passing on a love that overflows.

Have you ever considered that if you look at the word mom upside down it spells wow? The wow of your love is seen and felt and overflowing from your heart. Maybe when your child was young, you taped a measuring stick to the wall, marking their height each passing year until he or she towers over you. Whatever you measure love by, you can know that you have made your mark—from feeding and taking care of your family’s daily needs to watching your child grow and become a loyal, honest, and humble young person ready to take on the challenges of an adult. This love will help them as they come up against a world that may try to tear them down just as easily as you’ve tried to build them up.

What children need is love, and moms sure provide that in abundance. The world can try to divide us against each other, but the ways we hand out love—through our smiles, homemade treats, or hugs that wrap tightly like a You are . . . blanket—are how we can help restore and increase the love in our children.

When we ask God to increase our love for our family, we are coming close to our heavenly Father’s ways of the heart. Love abounding is his specialty—not love manufactured with human effort and striving, but boundless, selfless, unconditional love that doesn’t have an ending point. Now, if only our energy levels could keep up as we love on our children!

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Taken from I Love You, Mom by Blythe Daniel & Helen McIntosh. Copyright © 2022. Published by Tyndale House Publishers. Used by Permission.

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