What Sacrificial Love Looks Like

My journey as a mother of two children has been a roller-coaster to say the very least.  I have had uphill battles and have plummeted into depths that no one should have to face.  And yet, I wouldn’t trade motherhood for anything else in the world.  Perhaps that is how the Lord views His relationship with us.  As our Father, He loves His children and He disciplines us as well.  His approval of us goes beyond a birth right and straight to a place of sacrifice.  He loves us so much that it hurt.

Love Costs Something

My Husband loves to jokingly use that phrase on me…”I love you so much it hurts”.  Then we look at each other and laugh.

But as I think of all that our Lord Jesus had to endure on the cross on the account of me, I know that there is truth to this statement.  His love for me cost something.  My love for my children costs something.  I have to sacrifice for my children.  It isn’t till I really acknowledge how much the Lord gave for me that I’m even able to conceive of the amount of love that I need to invest into my own children.  So much so, that it actually hurts.

It's when we acknowledge the sacrificial love of our Father that we can truly show sacrificial love as a parent. Share on X

It isn’t until I’m faced with the sins of my own children that I realize how much I’ve put my own parents through, including my Heavenly Father.  That’s when I’m able to extend grace during such a hurtful time.  The pain is in the waiting for my children to learn the lessons and turn it all around.  The pain is also in thinking about the ways I could have done better as a parent.  The pain is in standing still when all I want to do is run to intervene.

Loving Our Children, Sacrificially

But God doesn’t say fix it, that’s His job.  He says invest.  He says, love them the way that He loves them.  Sacrificially.

My husband and I have been intentionally investing into our children by having bible studies with them at home.  We know that God’s Word does not return void and that all we pour into them will stay with them for the rest of their lives.  We know that by sacrificing our time and energy by pouring into our kids there will be life-long benefit.  We are already seeing the fruit.  This week on Salt & Light Linkup I am featuring a post by Daily His Disciple called “6 Ways To Intentionally Invest In Your Children“.  Annie shared practical truths that will not only enrich your parent/child relationships but help them to flourish.

“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine.  Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.  Teach them to your children.  Talk about them
when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.”
Deuteronomy 11:18-21  NLT

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