You Say that Repeatedly

I had a great conversation with my daughter recently. As she was leaving my room, I hugged her and told her I love her. She looked at me and said, “Dad! You say that repeatedly (she just learned the word ‘repeatedly’ so she’s currently using it all the time).

I told her, “For the rest of your life, out of all the things I say to you, ‘I love you’ is going to be the thing I repeat to you the most, because it is the most important thing of all.”

Then I asked her to come back and sit with me while I taught her this: At Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened and God said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I find great pleasure.” From there He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to fast for 40 days. At the end of the 40 days, the devil appears and quoted God almost exactly. He said, “If you’re the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.”

In his opening statement, he left out one word.

Beloved.

Why?

He wanted Jesus to question the love of God for Him. This should go without saying, but the devil also wants us to question God’s love for us.

If we question our lovability, we start trying to do things to get love instead of because we simply are loved. Most people spend their entire lives trying to get something they already have. Like a dog running after his own tail and causing himself pain when he catches it. If we spend our lives chasing after love, it will eventually be a painful realization as we find that we’ve had it all along.

I told my daughter I never want her to question whether or not she is loved by me or by God. So one way I’m going help her with that is to tell her every day (more than once) for the rest of her life. As parents, the one thing I pray most, is that we do everything we can to help our children never question if they are loved.

What’s something you do to help your children with this?