My workspace in my office and even the portable office of my briefcase is filled with special reminders. I have gifts from missionaries, mementos from coworkers, souvenirs from friends. But my most precious treasures are those handmade expressions of love from my kids. They might be simple bookmarkers or more elaborate statues, but they are from my kids just for me. I wouldn’t trade the world for them.
These gifts remind me how blessed I am to be loved as Daddy, and “love reminders” are good for anyone at any age.
What would happen, though, if my 15-year-old was still giving me gifts that looked like the gifts he gave me when he was a budding 5-year-old artist? What if my daughter’s gifts looked the same when she was 21-years-old as they did when she was a preschooler? Wouldn’t we say that there might be a development problem?
The great love chapter of the Bible contains this line:
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Love is supposed to grow up. In other words, our expressions of love should mature.
- Do I express love to God the same way I did as a “baby” Christian? Or are my expressions maturing?
- Do I tell Betsy I love her the same way I said it all those years ago when we first got married? Or am I finding new ways to say it?
- Do I express my love to all three of my kids the same way? Or am I learning each of their unique love languages?
How about you: Is your love—and the expression of your love to others—growing up?
Craig T. Owens 