Just Like Parents

This is a Christianish or possibly Jewishish post because I talk about God.  So if that bugs you you don't have to read it.   I won't feel bad (in fact, I won't even know!!).

Yesterday my husband was having children's time at our new church (Brunswick UMC in Crystal).  He was planning to preach a sermon called "God's Divine Adoption Plan" in which he would weave our personal adoption story into the verses in Ephesians that talk about how God adopts us. 

You never know what kids are going to say but you couldn't have scripted it better.   The conversation went something like this between the pastor and the kids.

Who does God love?

Everyone.

Does God love you?

YES!

Does God love you all the time?

yes

Does God love you when you are good?

YES!

Does God love you even when you are bad?

yes, they all said.

And then one of the little girls said, quite loudly, 'just like parents!"

Yes, folks, that is the whole point.  God is a parent who loves us when we are good but also when we are bad.  And everyone deserves an earthly parent who can do the same thing.

I learned long ago that love is a commitment not an emotion.  There are days when I don't particularly like my kids or enjoy some of their behaviors.  But I never stop loving them. Because love is not a feeling, it is a decision.

I want to be the kind of parent who, like God, loves my kids when they are good and when they are bad.  

As Pat O'Brien says as he shares the feelings of adopted older teens:

"May you love me the most, when I deserve it the least, because that is when I need it the most".

I'm grateful today for that reminder from a preschooler and hope that I can continue to love my kids even when they are "bad."