Mom Heart Moments #124

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

WHEN I LOOKED INTO BABY Sarah’s deep blue eyes for the very first time, my heart was astonished at the vast love that overwhelmed me. I am so grateful for that love, as it seems a key factor for reaching children’s hearts is how greatly loved and connected to their family they feel.

When babies start out being loved, touched, sung to, nursed, and cherished, their heart needs and physical needs begin to be connected in the brain in the right way. However, when babies are left to cry for long periods and not cherished and touched and cuddled and enjoyed, an essential chemical imbalance is created in their brain that makes them more apt to be irritated, fussy, and less responsive.

Loving a child, to me, means loving who your child is —his or her God-designed personality. It means delighting in your child and communicating that with words, gestures, and tone of voice. It means spending time playing with them and listening to them, and affirming them in front of others.

This did not come naturally to me, but I followed this love principle obediently by faith and saw the results in my children’s lives. I always thought of myself as more of an “adult” person than a “kid” person, as I had never been around children much at all before mine were born! But as I read many books about babies and researched Scripture and studied Christ, I knew that love would be the foundation for reaching the hearts of my children with the messages and truth of God, so I sought to cherish the essential design of who they were.

Does loving your children come easily to you? Or do you have to make an effort to appreciate your children as they are? (Remember, everyone has to put in extra effort sometimes!) Ask the Lord to help you see what He sees when He looks at them, each one a unique creation.