Today I finished reading two books. The first was ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’ and the second was ‘Crazy Love’. I really enjoyed both books. I really felt drawn and impressed to read both of them and have been thinking about Love and Parenting. Really Gods love for us and our parenting should be similar (if we have an accurate picture of God and he is working through us as parents).
The idea that you can love or be loved just for being is much easier to understand after having kids. God loves me and I need to love my kids no matter what they have done, what they do, what they will become or anothing else. God loves, teaches me to love and saves me by grace.
On top of that, when you read the bible. He is a crazy, strict, jealous, parent. This isn’t probably a popluar opinion but when you read the bible it is very clear that he demands worship, obedience, and control of our lives. I struggle a lot with my parenting on strictness. In reading through this I have discovered a much deeper love. A love that refuses give up on me or to let me give up on myself. It is a love that takes all the time it needs to teach a point, make a point, or develop character. Punishment, rebuke, consequences are all over the Bible. It is a love the believes that I can be much more than I think, or sometimes even want to be. It is a love that gives and turns me into ‘much more than I could ask or imagin’. It is a love that is ok with being seen as the ‘bad guy’ when it knows what is best for us. It is a deeply emotional love on both sides. God is anything but indifferent (which, instead of hate is really the opposite of love) to our lives or what we will become. He is involved and shaping every step because he really does know what is best for us.
I still have lots of thinking on this in its application on both the spiritual and parenting side. I was just struck and wowed that God would love me enough to go through all the work, not only of dying for me but continuing to work with me as I learn.