Coming out again, briefly, from hibernation to share a truth of mine, and it’s simply this, that eleven years ago, I knew what it meant to fall in love.
I’d heard of the phrase, falling in love, several times; had even read about it in romance books ( wink 😉) , and even fancied myself several times to be in love. When my husband and I started dating, I used to tell myself, and truly I believed that I had “fallen” in love with him. And while it was and is true that I loved him when I dated, and very much still love him, the truth is that I grew to love him, and to love him deeply. And he grew to love me, and to love me deeply with his very life. We all grow to love our spouses and we grow to love our friends, and we grow to love our jobs, and we grow to love our careers, etcetera. But to fall in love? That’s a different matter, and I did not realize what it meant to fall, FLAT ON YOUR FACE KIND OF LOVE UNTIL 11 YEARS AGO. I had no idea about this until I held my first child; the moment I had my first child, something very strange happened to me. I fell!!!!! I fell hard, head over heels, and deeply in love for the very, very first time.
The first time I held my son, and subsequently, my daughters in my arms for the first time, looking at their innocent faces, so vulnerable, I began to understand what it meant to fall in love, which is, that no hell, no heaven, no devil, not even me, could stand in my way when it came to protecting these ones. The funny thing is, my husband felt that way too when he met our children for the very first time in the delivery room. I remember him bursting into tears the first time he held our son – the sheer joy, at seeing his own, there are no words to describe it. And when he also held our daughters – that look of pure undiluted love – there’s no way I can describe that too. Now, this is not to mean that my husband loved and loves his children more than me; and it’s not to mean that I love my children more than my husband; it’s just that, the love that a parent has for a child, it’s just different. It’s not like anything you’ve ever known; It’s good. It’s nothing you can describe in words, and every parent will be able to attest to what I am saying. As an adult, there are certain things you can deny yourself, but when it comes to the needs of your children, you are ready to do anything to meet their needs, regardless of how silly, or how inconsequential that need may be.
So that, in a nutshell, is what I mean by falling in love. The love you have for someone so much that you are ready to lay down your very life for their comfort regardless of if they have been good or bad; the love you have for someone who has not even done anything to deserve it in the first place; The love you show to someone that is imperfect but whom in your eyes is the most perfect person in the world; it’s the love parents have for their children, and it’s the kind of love our heavenly father has for us. That passionate, over the top, affection that no hell, no heaven, no power, no prinicipality, not even YOU can ever stop.
And I strongly believe that one of the reasons God makes us have children, one of the reasons he makes us experience parenthood, is so that we can have a taste of how much he loves us too. Because you suddenly realize that if you can love your children the way you do, then how much more will God, our heavenly father, the perfect father love us too.
So today, I encourage you: Please calm down and know you are loved. The next time you look at your children, and your heart quivers at just how much love you have for them, remember that that is just how much God loves you, and even much more. The next time you look at the interaction of a child with his or her parent, and you see the way that child looks at his or her parent with eyes full of wonder, and of love, and of trust IN their parent; in trust OF their parent, – because a child just knows that daddy and mommy will always have my back no matter what, remember that this is just how much more God wants us to trust him too. And funny thing is, parents fail. But the Heavenly Father, he never fails. Always faithful, even when we are faithless.
Lastly, wanted to share a video of my son, (He is taking piano classes), and I singing one of my favorite songs, ‘you made a way.’ Hope you enjoy it, and remember, you are highly cherished.
Lara Daniels 