Craig T. Owens

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My workspace in my office and even the portable office of my backpack is filled with special reminders. I have gifts from missionaries, mementos from coworkers, and souvenirs from friends. But my most precious treasures are those handmade expressions of love from my kids. They might be simple bookmarks 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 developmental 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. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

Love is supposed to grow up.

In other words, my expressions of my love toward others should be maturing. So here are some questions I am asking myself:

• Do I express love to God the same way I did as a “baby” Christian? Or are my expressions maturing?
• Do I tell my wife 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 of my kids the same way? Or am I learning each of their unique love languages?

Let me ask you a question too: Is your love—and the expression of your love to others—growing up?

Take some time to ponder that question, and then make any grown-up changes that need to be made so that your love continues to mature.

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