Love like Jesus @ Home
What does it mean to love, serve, and lead like Jesus? We have spent the year emphasizing this theme. Between a second child graduating, seeing my youngest two finishing elementary school this week, and transitioning into the summertime, my mind goes to a more narrowed question: What does it look like to love, serve, and lead like Jesus @ home?
I believe our responsibility as parents is the most important leadership job we will ever have. To go back to last year’s theme, if we want to see a change in the world out there, it’s got to start right here.
Start with the Foundation
What does it look like to love like Jesus at home? Let’s first remember that “We love because He first loved us” (1 Timothy 4:19). There can be no discussion of doing anything like Jesus before first understanding the powerful, amazing grace found in that verse: He first loved us. His love is proactive, not reactive. It is not based on our ability to clean ourselves up or do enough to deserve it. He sent His son to die on the cross for us because He loved us first.
Have you received that gift of love, grace, mercy, salvation? Have you repented of the sins that separate you from a holy God and trusted Jesus to be your Lord and Savior? If not, stop right now and contact me. I’d love to sit down and talk with you about it.
We cannot love like Jesus without experiencing His love personally. The older I get, the more I realize this truth: you will never come to the end of learning the depths of His love and grace. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul tells them that he does not cease to pray that they “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19)
Loving like Jesus means prioritizing both truth and grace.
Jesus was described as being full of grace and truth. The original Greek wording there describes Him as being “full to the brim.” God has no room to grow in terms of grace or truth. In fact, He is the sole source of Truth and the only way to Grace.
We, as parents, tend to lean towards one of those two sides. You either lean towards the truth side (and away from the grace side), or you lean the opposite way. In fact, you probably tend to lean the opposite direction of your spouse. There is no problem leaning to a side. The problem is leaning toward the abandonment of the other side. Do you lean so heavily on the truth that you show no grace? Then you’ve abandoned truth as well. Do you lean so heavily on grace with your child that you have abandoned truth? That isn’t loving like Jesus, either.
In fact, the cross is the ultimate example of truth and grace being held equally high. If God had just declared us innocent, He would no longer be considered a just God. That is why Romans 3 explains that part of what happened on the cross with Jesus “was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26)
Loving like Jesus at home will require you to face the ugly truth at times but then point towards grace. We live in a culture that has long abandoned truth. But where culture is leaning towards isn’t grace, either. Some situations and dynamics are going to require you to shift back and forth between the two sides. Dealing with a child who has been lying will require you to lean heavily on the truth. But please do so with a heart of grace. Helping a child who is hurting will require you to lean in with grace, but in your comfort, do not affirm what is not true. I have a mentor who taught me that dads need to lean towards truth more with their sons and more grace with their daughters and that moms need to lean toward more grace with their sons and truth with their daughters. This must always be done in coordination with the other parent, or else it will undermine them. My family has benefitted greatly from this advice.
Loving like Jesus will include comforting and encouraging as much as it will include confronting and correcting. Loving like Jesus will result in the realization that we are not Him; therefore, we will make mistakes and need to make things right with our children, spouse, family, and friends. They need to see us fail and make it right. Loving like Jesus will continually point our children to Jesus and our absolute, never-ending need for Him more and more each day of our lives. It is the greatest job we will ever have as parents, and it’s worth it.
Let’s love like Jesus at Home today.