What You Promised
Devotional
Forty Letters to a New Dad
Devotions for New Fathers
Object:
Love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ... It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
-- 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7
Dear Kyle,
I can't remember if you had these scripture verses read at your wedding ceremony; many couples do. It is Paul's summation of what love would look like for the Christian. When we read it at a wedding, it sounds nice; it sounds like something a husband and a wife would aspire to exhibit toward one another. It doesn't always work out that way, but on one's wedding day, it sounds like a good plan.
When you knew you were going to have a child, you made plans to love it. Gender didn't matter, shape and size didn't matter, condition of the baby didn't matter; you would love it, no matter what. In Paul's own words, this is what you promised to Gordon.
You promised that your love would be patient. Children can try the patience of a parent. I don't think they try to do so, but a child's sense of time is different than an adult's. A child is doing things for a first or second time that we have done countless times over our years. A child is an emerging personality. While it is tempting to become impatient with them, when we promise to love our children, it means that we will try to exercise patience.
You promised that your love would be kind. This means that you are compelled to be nice to your son, not mean-spirited, or rude, or ill-tempered. It sounds so incomprehensible, I know that you might treat your child with anything but kindness. Yet, when life gets hard (and it may not even be about something Gordon has done or said), you might find yourself feeling less than kind.
You said that your love would not be arrogant. I think that means that when you have made a mistake, when you have done or said something to your son that you regret, you admit it. You might even ask for forgiveness. Recognize those words? I've done that with you. I'm not elevating myself for that, I am simply saying that parents need to be most real with those they love the most ... like their children!
What is the payoff in all of this love? That even through the bumps and turns, love hopes and believes and bears and endures it all. Love: It's a beautiful thing!
Love,
Dad
Loving God, help me keep my promises to Gordon; to love him no matter what! And help me to be a role model for him to learn to love others. Amen.
-- 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7
Dear Kyle,
I can't remember if you had these scripture verses read at your wedding ceremony; many couples do. It is Paul's summation of what love would look like for the Christian. When we read it at a wedding, it sounds nice; it sounds like something a husband and a wife would aspire to exhibit toward one another. It doesn't always work out that way, but on one's wedding day, it sounds like a good plan.
When you knew you were going to have a child, you made plans to love it. Gender didn't matter, shape and size didn't matter, condition of the baby didn't matter; you would love it, no matter what. In Paul's own words, this is what you promised to Gordon.
You promised that your love would be patient. Children can try the patience of a parent. I don't think they try to do so, but a child's sense of time is different than an adult's. A child is doing things for a first or second time that we have done countless times over our years. A child is an emerging personality. While it is tempting to become impatient with them, when we promise to love our children, it means that we will try to exercise patience.
You promised that your love would be kind. This means that you are compelled to be nice to your son, not mean-spirited, or rude, or ill-tempered. It sounds so incomprehensible, I know that you might treat your child with anything but kindness. Yet, when life gets hard (and it may not even be about something Gordon has done or said), you might find yourself feeling less than kind.
You said that your love would not be arrogant. I think that means that when you have made a mistake, when you have done or said something to your son that you regret, you admit it. You might even ask for forgiveness. Recognize those words? I've done that with you. I'm not elevating myself for that, I am simply saying that parents need to be most real with those they love the most ... like their children!
What is the payoff in all of this love? That even through the bumps and turns, love hopes and believes and bears and endures it all. Love: It's a beautiful thing!
Love,
Dad
Loving God, help me keep my promises to Gordon; to love him no matter what! And help me to be a role model for him to learn to love others. Amen.
