Love With Us!

"But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts." (Psalm 103:17,18 NIV)

With those who keep His covenant--the relationship firmly established out of obedience and reciprocal love and respect, we can count on His love always being with us and our children for generations to come. This is a promise we can expect to hold true, when we do what we must do.

When we won't do what we must do, then we can count on the opposite occurring--for generations to come--His love won't be with those who break the relationship with Him out of disobedience.

For all of those who can only say, "Jesus is all about love--not judgment," you might want to read and seek understanding of all The Word, not just one segment. Yes, Jesus did remind us to love one another and He also said, if we love God, we would obey Him. If we are truly His children, then we can expect Him to be the model of parenting for which we all should aspire.

When children are obedient, they reap rewards from loving parents.

When children are disobedient, they reap punishment from loving parents.

The only type of parents who do not discipline their children are those parents who do not care about what happens to their children and they let their children run wild, doing everything they think they want to do.

This is not so with God, our loving Father. He wants the very best for us, so He has established rules for our safety, and to make sure we can benefit from all of His promises. When we obey Him, we have no need to fear negative consequences, but to expect all the rewards He has in store for us. That's love.

We do not teach children respect, love, or discipline when we allow them to do whatever they want. They grow up thinking they can do whatever they want and then we are left with a society full of self-serving, rotten kids who never mature--in their adolescent behavior. We must teach them respect for authority by disciplining them in such a way that we provide deterrents for negative behavior so they can navigate the transition from adolescent to adulthood, successfully.

Children who throw tantrums have not been disciplined and go through life thinking that's all they have to do to have their way about everything. When parents give into the tantrums, they are not showing their children they love them, rather they show them how to manipulate others. Perhaps the real problem is that some parents manipulated their parents and so they know no other way to parent.

When parents know their child has committed atrocities with animals, playing with fire, breaking windows of property, and bullying other people and don't do anything about it--we end up with serial killers who think they have a right to kill. There's no love from parents in this situation--just apathy and nonchalance.

When misbehavior is stopped--from the beginning--and the deterrent memorable enough--the behavior is curved and love wins for all.

Let's be obedient to our Father and reap the rewards, knowing He will never withdraw His love from us, when we obey!